Quinbrook launches $2.5 billion ‘Supernode’ 800MW data storage project
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners says the new Supernode will be one of the largest permit-approved data storage campus projects in the Southern Hemisphere and host one of the largest battery storage installations in the Australian National Electricity Market.
The company is a specialist investment manager and focuses exclusively on the new infrastructure needed for a green energy transition.
Quinbrook says the project site is located adjacent to the South Pine substation at Brendale, the central node of the Queensland Electricity Network.
The company recently obtained Foreign Investment Review Board and local planning permissions from Moreton Bay Regional Council for a multi-tenant campus of up to four hyperscale data centres. They will connect directly to the adjacent South Pine substation offering up to 800 MWs of power supply capacity with three separate high voltage connections.
Quinbrook managing partner and co-founder David Scaysbrook says the location offers ample scope for powering the large-scale batteries with locally produced solar, wind and hydro-sourced renewables which will also power the data centre campus as it grows.
The Supernode, 30-hectare site at Brendale is only 30km from Brisbane CBD and will intersect with the new Torus dark fibre data cable currently under construction. This will directly connect Brisbane for the first time ever to the international subsea cable recently landed at Maroochydore from Guam.
Quinbrook says these high-capacity power connections, together with Queensland's low-cost and abundant renewable power resources, will offer data center customers at Supernode significant renewable power cost savings relative to interstate campus locations.
Scaysbrook says Supernode is the latest example of the company's strategy to make impactful and 'hard to repeat' investments that help decarbonise energy-intensive data center operations using renewable power solutions.
"As Queenslanders, the founders of Quinbrook are delighted that we can play our part in helping support the power grid at a critical stage of the State's energy transition when prices are high and volatility is rife," he says.
"With Supernode we will help attract new digital industries to come and flourish here and prosper sustainably by using locally produced, low cost, carbon-free renewable power and excellent data connectivity. This is the critical communications infrastructure needed by progressive industry in this State and it represents a competitive advantage in achieving Net Zero operations at low cost that may become the envy of competing economies the world over.
Quinbrook says the planned hyperscale data storage and BESS infrastructure will represent an estimated capital investment of up to $2.5 billion when fully constructed. The company has lodged applications to enable construction to commence in mid-2023.
Queensland Acting Premier and Minister for State Development Steven Miles says this announcement shows what the future holds for Queensland's digital and renewables economy and the creation of knowledge-based jobs.
"The Supernode is an innovative new project planning to bring large-scale storage facilities for both data and battery energy to the one site," he says.
