Gigawatt-Scale Off-Grid Data Center Campus Proposed in Western Australia

Gingerah Energy has submitted plans for a gigawatt-scale off-grid data center campus in Western Australia, filing the Meridien Renewable Energy Hub and Data Centre with the Australian National Environmental Protection Agency's EPBC portal. The project marks a significant pivot from its original conception as a large-scale green hydrogen and ammonia development, reflecting the shifting economics of renewable energy investment in the region and the surging demand for AI-ready digital infrastructure.

The proposed development would be situated on the Frazier Downs pastoral lease, approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Broome, spanning roughly 27,520 hectares. At its core, the project envisions a 6.7GW renewable energy hub comprising approximately 5.2GW of solar capacity and 1.5GW of wind turbines, backed by 5GW of battery energy storage and around 1.5GW of natural gas firming capacity. This substantial generation portfolio would power a 1GW data center campus and associated on-site substations, creating a fully integrated off-grid energy and computing ecosystem.

The first stage of the campus, featuring up to 240MW of IT load, is expected to be progressively constructed and commissioned over two to three years. Construction could reportedly begin in 2029, with full build-out targeted for 2038. The data centers would employ closed-loop cooling systems to minimize water consumption, addressing a critical sustainability concern for large-scale computing facilities in Australia's arid climate.

Gingerah Energy founder and CEO Jap van Hattum framed the project as a transformative opportunity for the region, stating that Project Meridien has the potential to become Western Australia's most significant near-term sustainable AI campus, combining gigawatt-scale data center capacity with dedicated renewable energy infrastructure and potentially the lowest latency connectivity to Singapore of any location in Australia. Van Hattum emphasized that the company's proposition is not to finance and build a multibillion-dollar development itself, but rather to establish an investment-ready infrastructure platform bringing together specialist energy providers, data center developers and anchor customers.

Gingerah Energy operates as a joint venture whose partners include Longreach Capital Investment, the Karajarri Traditional Lands Association (KTLA), which serves as the registered native title body for the Karajarri people, and Fugro Exploration, the Australian arm of Dutch geodata company Fugro. The Karajarri people own the land on which the project is set to be built, and Gingerah Energy entered into an Indigenous Land Use Agreement for the site two years ago. The location was previously earmarked for a large-scale renewables-based green hydrogen and ammonia project that would have included geothermal power generation capacity.

The shift toward a data center-focused development underscores a broader trend across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, where renewable energy projects are increasingly being redirected to serve the power-intensive demands of AI computing and cloud infrastructure. Western Australia's proximity to Southeast Asian markets, particularly Singapore, positions the proposed campus as a potentially strategic node for low-latency connectivity between Australia and major Asian digital economies. If realized, the project would rank among the largest off-grid data center developments globally, demonstrating how dedicated renewable generation can be paired with hyperscale computing loads without relying on strained public electricity grids.