Data Centre Water Supply
A licensed, non-potable groundwater source for data centre cooling in the Sydney Basin, sized for critical infrastructure and independent of the mains.
How much water does a data centre use?
More than most planning submissions admit. Data centres that use evaporative cooling consume water continuously, and the larger the facility the larger the draw. Australian water utilities have reported applications from data centre proponents seeking between 5 and 40 million litres a day, and industry analysis puts direct on-site water use by Australia's data centres, mostly for cooling, at around 5.5 gigalitres a year. Sydney Water has told the NSW parliamentary inquiry into data centres that cumulative demand in a high-growth scenario could reach 250 million litres a day by 2035.
That is why the rules changed. On 23 March 2026 the Australian Government's Expectations of Data Centres and AI Infrastructure Developers put sustainable water use into the national data centre investment framework: efficient cooling technologies, non-potable water where possible, circular water opportunities, resilience against drought, and transparent reporting on water use and efficiency. In August 2026 NSW's Data Centre Guidelines set paired thresholds, a design power usage effectiveness of 1.25 or better and a water usage effectiveness no worse than 1.0 litres a kilowatt-hour on potable water or 1.6 on non-potable, and directed proponents to recycled water for water-intensive cooling or to an agreement with their utility to move to a rainfall-independent supply.
Treated groundwater is a non-potable, rainfall-independent source that can be licensed, built and delivered on the proponent's own site or from a nearby licensed source. Sydney Basin Water designs, funds, builds, owns and operates that supply, so the water arrives under a long-term agreement at an agreed quality and volume, and the potable connection stays available for the uses that genuinely need it.
How a data centre groundwater supply comes together
DEMAND
Design cooling load, peak and average make-up water, the quality the cooling system needs, and the site's potable and recycled water position. This sets the yield to prove.
INVESTIGATE
A groundwater investigation with test drilling and yield testing, so the volume committed to the facility is one the aquifer has demonstrated.
LICENCE
Water Access Licence, share components in the relevant groundwater source, works approval and metering, handled in parallel with the facility's planning approvals.
BUILD
Production bores, headworks, treatment plant, storage and delivery mains to the cooling plant, built by licensed drillers to the national construction standard.
SUPPLY
Water delivered to specification under a supply agreement, monitored and reported, with the operating record available for the facility's own water reporting.
What the facility is actually buying
Sydney Basin Water is an end-to-end groundwater infrastructure partner, not a drilling contractor. We fund, build, own and operate the supply infrastructure and the facility buys the water it produces, by the kilolitre, under a long-term agreement. The capital cost, the licensing obligation and the operational risk sit with us. There is no bore to maintain, no pump to replace, no licence renewal to track and no extraction reporting to file on the facility's side.
Where a developer would rather own the asset, we design and build it and hand it over. Either way the resource is proven before anyone commits to a volume, and either way the supply is sized against the cooling design, not an annual average. We construct alongside BG Drilling and work with Reditus and Tetris Capital on the infrastructure and funding side.
Where groundwater fits in a data centre's water strategy
Cooling Make-Up Water
The largest continuous draw on an evaporatively cooled site, supplied from a non-potable source rather than the potable mains.
Rainfall-Independent Supply
Aquifers do not follow restriction cycles, which is the resilience the national expectations ask developers to demonstrate.
Alongside Recycled Water
Groundwater can sit beside a recycled water connection as a second, independent non-potable source, not instead of it.
Water Reporting
Metered, monitored and reported extraction, giving the facility the transparent water-use record the framework expects.
Planning and Approvals
Water licensing runs in parallel with the facility's own approvals, so a groundwater option is real at the point the cooling design is fixed.
Licensing, approvals and compliance
You cannot take commercial volumes of groundwater in New South Wales simply because you own the land above it. Basic landholder rights cover stock and domestic use only. A data centre's extraction needs a Water Access Licence with share components in the relevant groundwater source, a water supply works approval for each bore, and compliant metering, all administered under the Water Management Act 2000. Annual extraction is capped by the water sharing plan covering that source.
We handle the entire pathway: the hydrogeological work supporting the application, licence acquisition or the trade of share components, the works approval, compliant metering and telemetry, and the ongoing extraction reporting. For sites that also need the water brought to a cooling specification, see bore water treatment.