Gigawatt-Scale Behind-the-Meter AI Data Center Campus Proposed in Australia’s Northern Territory
July 1, 2026
Gigawatt-Scale Behind-the-Meter AI Data Center Campus Proposed in Australia’s Northern Territory
A massive behind-the-meter hyperscale data center campus, designed to power artificial intelligence workloads entirely off the grid, has been proposed in Australia’s remote Northern Territory. The project, named Project Ares, is being developed by Singapore-based Energy North and marks one of the largest integrated energy and digital infrastructure developments ever envisioned for the region.
Project Ares is planned as a 1 gigawatt (GW) AI data center campus located at Murranji Station in the Barkly Region, approximately 683 kilometers south of Darwin and 50 kilometers northwest of Elliott. The data center portion will occupy around 90 hectares at full build-out, while the accompanying solar farm will span up to 7,000 hectares. The facility will be powered entirely by behind-the-meter energy generation, including up to 3 GW of solar capacity, 16 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery storage, and between 900 megawatts (MW) and 1.1 GW of natural gas-fired “dispatchable generation.” Notably, the campus will have no connection to the grid.
Energy North is targeting an initial 500 MW phase, with an estimated investment of approximately AU$11.9 billion. How the project will be funded remains unclear. The company said Project Ares could scale to 5 GW in future phases. The campus will be co-located with Project Sol, a green hydrogen and green ammonia development also planned by Energy North, which is expected to come online in 2033.
“Energy North is not building just another data center. We are building the specialized engine room for the AI economy — designed to Formula 1 pit lane specifications, not a suburban garage,” said Scott Criddle, Energy North CEO and founder. Criddle previously served as CEO of Decmil, an engineering firm co-founded by his father, which was acquired by Australian mining services and construction company Macmahon Company in 2024.
Energy North is headquartered in Singapore and focuses on large-scale renewable energy and digital infrastructure in Northern Australia. The company is owned by Raggiana Global, which is owned and led by Criddle, and includes a division focused on natural gas, ammonia, and biofuels. Project Ares and Project Sol are the firm’s first developments.
The 447,500-hectare Murranji Station is a cattle station purchased by Australia’s largest private landowner, Viv Oldfield, for AU$44 million in November 2025, along with 20,000 cattle. The property was previously acquired by the Pickersgill family’s Bunderra Cattle Company in 2020 for AU$23 million.
The project has drawn criticism from environmental groups. Greenpeace Australia, which recently published a report labeling data centers “energy vampires,” opposes the development. Solaye Snider, a campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, told the National Tribune: “Proposals like Project Ares, which would have significant off-grid gas-powered generation and emissions, should not be moving along while there are still zero binding regulations to limit the impacts of AI data centers on our communities and environment.” Snider called for an urgent moratorium on the construction and approval of new data centers, saying the Australian government is “asleep at the wheel” regarding the rapid rollout of AI data centers.
Project Ares is listed on the Australian Government’s roster of current major projects and on the National Environmental Protection Agency’s EPBC Act portal.
Source: datacenterdynamics
