Firmus Technologies proposes third Tasmanian data center project with 52MW capacity

Australian neocloud provider Firmus Technologies has submitted plans for its third data center development in Tasmania, targeting a 52MW facility at the former paper mill site in Wesley Vale's Mill Park, located at 226 Mill Road. The application, filed several months ago, was only made public after the company provided additional information to authorities, as reported by ABC News.

The proposed project, outlined on Firmus' Wesley Vale project page, includes a principal data hall building alongside technical and administrative areas. According to application documents, the development will occupy approximately 3,500 square meters (37,695 square feet), with the data hall itself spanning 2,690 square meters (28,945 square feet). The main structure will feature a roof height of around 8.5 meters, extending to 15 meters when including rooftop plant equipment.

Firmus highlighted that power utility TasNetworks owns and operates major electricity transmission infrastructure near the site, including the adjoining Wesley Vale substation. The company said this proximity "makes Wesley Vale a suitable location for an initial connection at 26MW, using existing industrial electrical infrastructure without disrupting local distribution networks." To support future expansion, Firmus will invest in upgrades to the substation, enabling a subsequent 26MW connection once works are complete. Of the total 52MW capacity, 46MW will be dedicated to critical IT load, with 40 diesel generators deployed on-site for backup power.

The company emphasized that its data centers are designed to consume "a very limited amount of water," used only on hot days, thanks to its proprietary HyperCube cooling system. Earlier statements to ABC indicated plans to source water from Tasmanian Irrigation, though the utility noted it was not legally permitted to supply data centers. Current project documents make no mention of Tasmanian Irrigation, instead stating that the facility will rely on rainwater and truck-delivered water.

The public can submit comments on the proposal until September 9, with the Latrobe council expected to consider the application later this year. This Wesley Vale project joins two other Firmus developments in Tasmania: a recently approved 288MW facility in the Bell Bay Advanced Manufacturing Zone and a 104MW data center under construction in Launceston's St Leonards area. All three are part of the company's "Project Southgate" initiative, a long-term strategy to deploy sovereign compute capacity across Australia for AI training and inference workloads, with plans to reach 1.6GW of total capacity by 2028.

To fund these ambitions, Firmus raised $2 billion in an equity investment round last month. The company also entered a binding agreement to acquire the "Fabrication, Design, and Projects" business of Benmax, the HVAC and mechanical systems developer that manufactures Firmus' HyperCube modular data center solution. This acquisition is expected to accelerate Firmus' ability to build AI compute capacity rapidly across its growing portfolio.

The Wesley Vale project underscores a broader trend of data center developers targeting regional industrial sites with existing power infrastructure, a strategy that can significantly reduce grid connection timelines. As AI workloads drive demand for large-scale compute capacity, projects like this highlight the growing importance of secondary locations with available electricity and land, particularly in markets like Australia where major urban centers face capacity constraints.