Key facts
- Energy North's Project Ares is planned at 1 gigawatt on a 191 sq km campus with gas turbines, solar and an airstrip.
- The Northern Territory EPA said it had a low level of confidence in proposed measures to manage potential significant impact.
- The regulator suspended its seven-week deadline and said it would seek federal government advice, giving no new timeframe.
- Beetaloo Energy has proposed a data centre near Darwin twice the size of Project Ares, needing up to 400 terajoules of gas a day.
- The two projects would total 3 gigawatts, about 10 times peak demand on the territory's grid, the report said.
Energy North, a startup developing a gas and solar powered data centre on a cattle ranch in Australia's Northern Territory, has abandoned its target start date after the territory's environment regulator suspended its review timetable.
The company had given a "first power" date of June 28, 2028, in regulatory filings four months before November 2, 2026. Energy North vice president of project development Daniel Hunter said in an email to Reuters that the date "was an indicative schedule at the time of lodgement, and we're no longer working to it."
The Northern Territory Environment Protection Agency said in an October 7, 2026, ruling that it was suspending its seven-week deadline to decide what environmental hurdles the project must clear. The regulator said it would seek advice from the federal government, which it said is developing policy expectations for data centre and AI infrastructure developers, and gave no new timeframe.
The agency warned of 10 potential impacts from the proposed 191 sq km campus, which includes a gas turbine system, solar farm, airstrip and accommodation for 4,300 construction workers, ranging from strain on water systems to disruption of Aboriginal sacred sites. It said it had a "low level of confidence in the effectiveness of proposed measures to manage potential significant impact."
Hunter said the project was unfazed and would confirm timing once the regulator sets out terms for an environmental impact statement. He declined to say who is lined up to finance the project.
At 1 gigawatt, Project Ares is four times the size of a data centre expansion in Melbourne that developer NextDC delayed in the month before the report, and 10 times the size of a project Goodman pulled in Sydney amid resident pushback. Adam Beck, an urban planner who has written environmental impact statements and advises governments, said "our antiquated planning frameworks weren't designed for proposals like this."
Beetaloo Energy has proposed a data centre near Darwin twice the size of Project Ares, needing up to 400 terajoules of gas a day. Combined, the two projects would total 3 gigawatts, about 10 times peak demand on the territory's grid. The Northern Land Council said in a submission to a federal inquiry that expediting Aboriginal consultation "does not produce prompt consent."