News
8 September, 2026
Is there such thing as a ‘good’ data centre?
Under what conditions – if any – would residents of the Southern Highlands be prepared to accept a data centre and all of its associated infrastructure in Moss Vale?
Under what conditions – if any – would residents of the Southern Highlands be prepared to accept a data centre and all of its associated infrastructure in Moss Vale?
That’s the question being asked as moves begin to formulate a ‘community counter offer’ – moving beyond minimising negative impacts and asking what good data centre development could look like for the local community.
It is a model that could potentially be used around the world, according to one of the key people involved.
“What happens in the Southern Highlands will have global resonance,” Reece Proudfoot from Regen Labs said on Monday.
‘A Better Model for Data Centres: A Community-Counter Offer’ is a joint initiative of Regen Labs, RadicalxChange, BWD Strategic and Highlands Homegrown Economy.
Its aim is to give residents “a genuine role in shaping what happens”.
An information session on the initiative was held on Monday via Zoom and attracted more than 160 people from across the country.
Speakers included Mr Proudfoot from Regen Labs, Jess Scully from RadicalxChange, Josue Castro from BWD Strategic and Gaye White from Highlands Homegrown Economy.
Mr Proudfoot said 225 data centres worth an estimated $150 billion were currently in the planning or development stages across Australia.
He described it as a “genuine crossroads moment” and said it was time to start asking if data centre projects could be made “genuinely good” for the communities that host them.
He said there had been a strong community campaign against a proposed gas-fired power plant attached to the data centre in Douglas Road, Moss Vale, but it was time to ask what the community would be prepared to say ‘yes’ to.
Executive director of RadicalxChange Jess Scully said data centres were a “critical issue”.
She said people felt disempowered and couldn’t give an informed perspective because they haven’t been given all the information they need.
Ms Power said it was important to help people “co-operate across difference” and to reveal the opinion landscape within a community.
Helping people understand one another’s differences enabled them to respectfully work through contentious and divisive issues.
As part of the process RadicalxChange will be using open-source tools like pol.is and quadratic voting that help bridge division instead of inflaming it.
“Instead they ask: once we understand each other, what can we move forward on, together?” Ms Scully said during her presentation.
“We use them to design processes that gather opinions at scale, surface unexpected agreement and help communities set priorities, without losing the nuance of individual voices or the signal in genuine difference.”
Ms Scully said it was important to “pause a moment and deliberate” but at the same time acknowledged the speed at which data centres were being rolled out.
She said the process would move quickly in the Southern Highlands and would include online polling and deliberative sessions.
Results are expected to be presented to the community in late October.
They will also be published on a website and the entire process documented, providing a roadmap for other communities struggling with data centre proposals.
Mr Proudfoot said the acceptance of data centre proposals on the basis of ‘no harm’ was not good enough.
He said communities should be expecting proposals to be ‘net positive’ – meaning that they should put more back into society, the environment and the economy than they take out.
There is already a small data centre on-site in the Southern Highlands Innovation Park (SHIP) and Wingecarribee Shire Council has approved a 14MW gas-fired power plant.
However the applicant has also lodged an application for a 16MW plant, which is currently before the Land and Environment Court and a 673MW plant, which is being considered as a State Significant Development.
With a combined capacity of 703MW, the gas-fired power plant would become one of the largest in the county, prompting residents to raise a number of concerns relating to impacts on human health, the environment and climate change.
--------------
Subscribe to The Southern Wire Newsletter for free at the link below.
https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/1986abc6-c89e-4781-9db2-cf35c9dd71e4
If you value independent local journalism across the Highlands, Tablelands and Wollondilly, please click the link below to support us to ensure we remain paywall free.
Read More: Southern Highlands, Moss Vale