Wednesday, 26 August 2026

The Albanese government is set on writing rules for new data centres that would oblige operators to source additional renewable energy, according to RenewEconomy.

RenewEconomy describes that requirement as a welcome shift for a sector that has struggled to secure power deals capable of making projects viable.

The question of who powers the data centre build-out lands in front of the states. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to sit down with state and territory leaders at a national cabinet meeting on Wednesday, RenewEconomy reported.

Not every jurisdiction is aligned with the additionality approach. Queensland and the Northern Territory are pushing to use data centre demand as a lever to bolster gas and coal power, according to RenewEconomy.

That split sets up the central tension for the meeting: whether new computing load is matched with newly built renewable generation, or used to underwrite fossil-fuelled capacity in the states arguing for it.

Spain's Council of Ministers cleared urgent administrative processing of a draft royal decree on August 25 that would tie data center expansion to energy sustainability, water efficiency, resilience and digital sovereignty requirements, according to pv magazine.

Under the proposal, operators would have to cover at least 80% of their electricity consumption with additional renewable generation, matched hour by hour against supply, pv magazine reported.

The threshold is not permanent. Per pv magazine, the 80% obligation would hold until renewables exceed 90% of Spain's electricity mix, at which point the requirement could be revised.

The scale of the pipeline explains the urgency. The Spanish government said more than 12 GW of grid access and connection rights have gone to data centers since 2021, according to pv magazine.

Compliance deadlines differ by project stage. Facilities already inside the permitting process would get six months to meet the new requirements, while those waiting on a grid access tender would get three, pv magazine reported.

Hourly matching is the demanding part of the design. It requires generation to line up with consumption in each hour rather than over a year, and the additionality condition means the renewable supply must be new rather than drawn from existing plants.

Data center developers are being asked to document their financing, capacity and stress-hour behavior before they can secure power, according to Power Magazine, which describes recent state and federal action as a pivot away from treating data center growth purely as a grid-planning problem.

The emerging requirements put three questions to large-load customers: who pays for the grid upgrades the load triggers, what capacity actually supports it, and how the project will operate when the system is under stress.

Morgan Lewis partner Arjun P. Ramadevanahalli discussed the shift in an interview with POWER, addressing how rising scrutiny is changing the way data centers secure power.