Thermal battery company chasing 1 GW data centre deal for site once earmarked for giant solar towers

Listed thermal battery technology developer 1414 Degrees says it is chasing a supply deal for a potential 1 gigawatt (GW) data centre deal in South Australia, and has signed a heads of agreement for the project.

The initial project will see a 17 megawatt (MW) data centre – built by an as-yet unidentified company, before growing to 200 MW and then more at a later date.

The deal comes as the federal government looks to mandate that data centres bring their own renewable energy in order to be allowed to connect to the grid. South Australia is already at 75 per cent share of wind and solar and aims to reach 100 per cent “net” renewables by the end of next year.

And while big data centre operators have come out in support of the policy, with the likes of Airtrunk reading the tea leaves early and already buying renewable energy, others are building a backup energy strategy around gas. 

Read: Plan to power off-grid data centre with solar, gas and a 16 gigawatt-hour battery seeks federal green tick;
and Protests called as data centre developer super-sizes plans for fossil gas generation in Southern Highlands; 
and Government backs “disaster proposal” to power 2 GW hyperscale data centre with fracked Beetaloo gas

1414 Degrees itself has spent more than a decade developing a molten silicon-based thermal battery, a technology that makes up one of the products it’s trying to commercialise alongside the Port Augusta site, which itself has a storied history.

The latest deal for what the company calls the Aurora Energy Precinct would see an initial “modular” data centre campus that ramps up to 200 MW once a 275 kilovolt (kV) transmission line is built.

The final total size could be up to 1 GW.

This particular agreement gives the data centre operator exclusivity over a 40 hectare spot within the Aurora site, while terms are hammered out for a final deal. 

The 1580 hectare site, about 20km north of Port Augusta, was once earmarked for a concentrated solar tower by US company SolarReserve, before that company collapsed and the plans were abandoned.

1414 Degrees said it would buy those plans in 2019 and revive the idea in partnership with the then-named Vast Solar.

The goal was to build a 140 MW, two hour battery at the site, which has planning approval, along with a 30 MW concentrated solar plant with 288 megawatt-hours (MWh) of thermal storage, co-located with a planned solar methanol demonstration project.

Those plans hit a bump in 2022 when a key backer pulled out, but continued until last year when Australia’s concentrated solar dreams were dashed again as the renamed Vast Renewables entered voluntary administration.

1414 Degrees has apparently replaced its previous tenant with a data centre customer, but the full terms are yet to be thrashed out.

“Under the proposed structure, 1414 Degrees would provide the development parcel, power and connectivity inputs, while the data centre partner would provide the capital, technical expertise and operating capability required to deploy and operate the AI data centre infrastructure,” an ASX statement reads.

Still to be negotiated are a swathe of terms, including lease and access fees, what the data centre will pay for electricity, connection agreements and metering, and how 1414 Degrees might get a share of the data centre earnings.

The ASX company also wants to turn its Aurora site into an heavy electric vehicle recharging location.

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