Mascot residents organise against hyperscale AI data centre construction

A community group has come together to oppose the Project Duke hyperscale artificial intelligence (AI) data centre planned for Kent Street, Mascot.

Mascot Against AI Datacentres (MAAD) is organising to stop the project, which was approved by the NSW Department of Planning in December last year. 

The 90–120 megawatt project was approved under State Significant Development rules that bypass local council approval processes. It would join data centres in nearby Alexandria and Roseberry, including an 18MW data centre on Gardeners Road and an 84MW data centre on Bourke Road. 

The processing power required for AI, means that AI data centres use significantly more energy and water than regular data centres. 

Project Duke is the largest approved AI data centre near the CBD, and is set to consume enough energy for 64,000 households, will use as much water a day as 30,000 people and will produce constant noise that will impact nearby apartment buildings.

It will feature diesel generators and above ground diesel tanks that can store up to 783,000 liters.

While diesel generators are pitched as emergency only reserves, in case of power shortages, some data centres reportedly use diesel generators on a regular basis.

Local residents are worried about health impacts from air and noise pollution. “I wouldn’t have bought my home if I knew there was going to be a data centre built here,” said a resident involved in MAAD.

State and federal Labor governments continue to push AI data centres in an effort to make Australia a local hub for the international tech and AI industry, despite concerns that the “AI bubble” might burst.

At least 27 AI data centres are under construction across the country, with more in the planning phase. 

Communities are getting organised against AI data centres across the country, and there have already been some impressive wins in NSW.

The proposal for an AI data centre on the banks of the Cooks River, in Arncliffe, was defeated by a powerful community-led campaign. Stop Cooking the River said the defeat was a warning to political leaders that local communities will not accept “power and water guzzling AI data centres”. In Katoomba, a resident noticed a Development Application notice for a 1-2MW data centre in a sensitive nature area. They set up No Data Centre in Katoomba to spread the word, and the outcry was so great that the project was scrapped within seventeen days.

The controversial 90MW Project Mars AI data centre in Lane Cove was scrapped after a resident-led campaign organised by Lane Cove Responsible Planning Group.

In West Footscray, in Naarm/Melbourne, community group Citizens of Tottenham’s campaign has caused construction delays that have wiped billions off the stock value of data centre giant NextDC. 

New opposition groups have formed in Arncliffe, Kemps Creek, Moss Vale and Guildford West, and now in Mascot.

MAAD activist Kyle Barrington said “local residents we spoke to were unaware of the proposal and did not recall receiving the letters that supposedly were sent advising of the plan”. 

“No community forums have been held advising of Project Duke or explaining the many negative impacts.”

MAAD is calling for a pause on the construction of Project Duke to engage genuine environment and social impact studies and community consultation. It is joining calls from other community groups for a moratorium on new AI data centres across NSW. 

[Sign the Mascot Against AI Datacentres petition here. A statewide rally against AI data centres is planned for December 5.]