AI cloud provider IREN has outlined plans for a 900MW data centre campus near Wagga Wagga, NSW, with a proposed investment of more than AU$10 billion, according to reports, and a target of initial energisation in 2029.
The Nasdaq-listed company announced the proposed Redbank project to the local community, saying it remained in an early assessment phase and was not included in its announced 5GW secured-power portfolio.
IREN said it was working towards a grid connection and reportedly planned to lodge a scoping report with the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure at the end of October. The report is the first step in the state’s planning process and will help establish the requirements for a detailed environmental impact statement.
The campus would be developed in stages over six to eight years, according to reporting by The Daily Advertiser. IREN executive director Lindsay Ward told the newspaper the company was attracted to the site because it was not on prime agricultural land, was near electricity infrastructure and had access to local support services.
Wagga cluster forming
Redbank is planned for the Gregadoo area on Wagga Wagga’s southern outskirts, west of the Gregadoo Waste Management Centre. It would be close to CDC Data Centres’ separately proposed 1.4GW campus off Ashfords Road, putting two large-scale data centre proposals in the same regional cluster.
Together, the projects represent up to 2.3GW of proposed capacity, although neither figure should be treated as secured demand or approved development. CDC has lodged its scoping report and is awaiting the next stage of assessment.
IREN is targeting more than 500 construction jobs and more than 200 ongoing full-time roles at Redbank. Ward told The Daily Advertiser the company would build a workers’ camp on the project site to avoid adding pressure on Wagga Wagga’s housing. IREN’s community information page speaks more broadly, saying the company is investigating several options, including an accommodation camp for the construction workforce on site and new housing for operational staff.
IREN has also forecast more than AU$200 million in payments to Wagga Wagga City Council over 30 years, including community benefits, local infrastructure and council rates.
The company says it intends to connect to the existing high-voltage network and fund its own connection. It also plans to contract new generation and storage to cover the campus’s electricity requirements. However, the project is not part of IREN’s announced secured-power portfolio, and the company has not announced a final grid connection agreement for Redbank.
The site is expected to use closed-loop cooling. According to IREN, filling the system is expected to require about three megalitres of water every six months during construction, with annual top-ups below one percent of the system’s total capacity once filled.
Redbank would be IREN’s second Australian data centre campus after its planned 800MW Bundey development in South Australia, for which it announced a transmission connection agreement in June. The company operates data centres in Canada and the United States and supplies AI computing capacity to customers including Microsoft and Nvidia.
IREN said it will hold community drop-in sessions in the city on 4 and 5 November, with further project details expected to emerge through the planning process.