Data Centre Giant Lines Up Hunter Power Deal for Kurri Kurri Site
AirTrunk signed an exclusivity agreement with European Energy Australia for solar, wind and battery projects in New South Wales. The projects would supply a planned 550 MW data centre at the former Kurri Kurri smelter site, but none has yet been approved or financed.
AirTrunk, a data centre giant, lines up a clean power supply for its planned 550 MW data centre at the former Kurri Kurri smelter site in New South Wales, after signing an exclusivity agreement on Thursday, November 12, 2026.
The deal is with European Energy Australia. It covers a 260 megawatt (MW) solar farm, a 350 MW wind farm and a 600 MW battery with 800 megawatt-hours (MWh) of storage, all in the Hunter-Central Coast renewable energy zone.
Plans, not yet projects
The agreement is mostly aspirational. The solar, wind and battery proposals have not yet been put forward for approval, and no financiers have committed money.
The two companies said talks on a potential long-term power purchase agreement are still "progressing". Investors usually want that contract in place before they back a project and make a final investment decision.
AirTrunk already buys part of the output of the 31 MW Mulwala solar farm on the Victorian border of New South Wales. European Energy also owns that completed project.
Timeline and targets
The solar and battery projects are expected to start operating in 2030. The wind project would follow in 2032.
AirTrunk is one of the biggest data centre proponents in Australia. It says it wants to offset all of its energy use with renewables by 2030.
"Digital growth must bring new energy with it," said AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda. He said the federal government's expectations and the state's guidelines "set a high bar for the industry", and that the partnership is "an important step" toward meeting them.
Policy backdrop
The federal government is consulting on legislation that would require data centres to bring new, additional renewable energy to cover their needs. Carve-outs are possible for states that want to allow gas or even coal.
New South Wales already has guidelines that expect data centre companies to fund the extra energy they need themselves. For renewable developers, a large customer willing to anchor a project is what they have been seeking.
Many data centre operators prefer gas as a constant supply. Developer Cloud Carrier is arguing in court that it would mothball a 16 MW gas power station after as little as two years, once it can guarantee secure grid power. The station is intended for its proposed data centre in the New South Wales southern highlands.
The local council rejected that plan and the appeal is before the Land and Environment Court. The developer is also proposing a 673 MW fossil gas generator, while the state's largest gas peaking plant, Colongra, is 724 MW.
In Western Australia's Kimberley region, the Meridien data centre proposal says it will run its first 240 MW stage entirely on gas. It is also building gas peaking capacity that could power the whole 1 gigawatt proposal, and promises about 6.7 GW of wind, solar and battery, but would not start building those until the second stage in 2032.
