A gigawatt-scale behind-the-meter data center campus has been proposed outside Darwin, Australia.
Energy North has announced plans for Project Ares, a 1GW hyperscale AI data center campus with integrated renewable energy generation.
The site would include up to 3GW of solar generation, 16GWh of battery storage, 900-1.1GW of natural gas-fired “dispatchable generation,” and no connection to the grid.
Set to be located at Murranji Station in the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory, approximately 683km south of Darwin and approximately 50km north-west of Elliott, the data center portion of the project would total some 90 hectares at full build-out, with the solar farm totaling up to 7,000 hectares.
The company is targeting 500MW in the first phase, with some AU$11.9 billion expected to be invested in the first phase. How the project will be funded is unclear.
The campus would be co-located with Project Sol, a green hydrogen and green ammonia development Energy North is planning. Sol is due online in 2033.
Energy North said Project Ares could scale to 5GW in future phases.
The project is listed on the Australian Government’s roster of ‘current major projects’ and the National Environmental Protection Agency’s EBPC Act portal.
"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 & founder.
Headquartered in Singapore, Energy North is a developer of large-scale renewable energy and digital infrastructure, focused on Northern Australia. Project Ares and Project Sol are the company’s first developments. The firm is owned by Raggiana Global, which in turn is owned and led by CEO Criddle, and has a division focused on natural gas, ammonia, and biofuels.
Criddle was previously CEO of Decmil, an engineering firm co-founded by his father and acquired by Australian mining services and construction company Macmahon Company in 2024.
The 447,500-hectare Murranji Station is a cattle station (a large farm akin to an American ranch) located south-west of Daly Waters. It was purchased by Australia’s largest private landowner, Viv Oldfield, for AU$44m and 20,000 cattle from the Pickersgill family's Bunderra Cattle Company in November 2025. The Bunderra company had acquired the land in 2020 for AU$23m, a deal which included 12,500 cattle.
Greenpeace Australia, which recently published a report calling data centers “energy vampires,” is against the project.
Solaye Snider, 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.
“The Australian Government is asleep at the wheel when it comes to the rapid roll-out of AI data centers. We need an urgent moratorium on the construction and approval of new data centers, so our government can take appropriate time to legislate the regulations and safeguards we so desperately need.”