Australia faces risk of capital diversion from renewables to AI projects

Australia spent years building a case for renewables as the country’s next big investment story. Now a newer, shinier story is pulling investors away: AI data centres. A pipeline that eats power and capital The scale is hard to ignore. Australia’s proposed data centre investment pipeline is valued at approximately AUD 150 billion. Ridhaa Ahmed of Grok Ventures put a name to the tension at the Australian Financial Review Energy and Climate summit on October 14, 2026. She described the situation as a “competition for capital”, one that tilts heavily toward data centres. The weak spot for renewables shows up in contracting. Only around 6% of approved wind and solar projects have secured long-term power purchase agreements as of 2026. The demand forecast that changes the math The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has sketched out how big the electricity draw could become. Data centres currently account for 2-5% of National Electricity Market demand. By the mid-2030s, AEMO projects that share could reach 10-13%. Current data centre consumption sits at approximately 3 TWh. Greenpeace sharpened the warning in a report released on October 13, 2026, the day before the summit. The gro...