InterContinental Energy eyes 300MW AI campus at Pilbara renewable hub

InterContinental Energy (ICE) is aiming to host as much as 300MW of IT capacity by the end of 2029 at the Australian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), in Western Australia's East Pilbara. The site lies roughly 2.5 hours by road from Port Hedland, and ICE is looking at pairing large-scale AI compute with renewable generation and green hydrogen output. It wants to reach a final investment decision and start building both the generation and the data centre infrastructure in the first half of 2027, and initial compute could start running in 2028.

Timing and capacity both hinge on customer demand, and ICE has not revealed whether its conversations with prospective AI compute partners have turned into formal commitments. The company described those talks as advanced and involving several potential partners, but would not give their status or terms. ICE will not build or run the data centres itself; it plans to supply powered land so that customers or partners can do that. Chief executive Alex Tancock told W.Media that interest is rising among AI developers, frontier labs, neoclouds and hyperscalers.

Under ICE's P2(H₂)Node model, renewable generation, AI compute and hydrogen production would share one energy system. ICE estimates that 300MW of IT load would need roughly 1GW of upstream wind and solar, and that the wider first stage could need over 2GW to also serve hydrogen and other industrial users. In the node design, about 2GW of generation would feed around 1GW of downstream load; AI compute could take 10-50 per cent of that, with the balance going to green hydrogen for its green iron customer. ICE did not tell W.Media how these configurations relate, or what overbuild and storage assumptions sit behind them.

ICE's design targets are 100 per cent renewable supply and 99.995 per cent uptime, though these remain targets. Batteries would handle firming initially, with hydrogen storage taking on more of that role over time. Tancock anticipates a grid connection from 2031, but the aim is for the data centres to sit behind the meter and draw on on-site wind and solar. He said the Pilbara Green Link might contribute to firming, although its main job will be exporting AREH power to Pilbara customers. W.Media noted that, without detailed storage capacity or operating data, the reliability target cannot be independently assessed. Tancock said nine years of on-site data feed modelling that suggests a capacity factor near 74 per cent, itself a modelled number.

On connectivity, Tancock said existing fibre routes run near AREH and could be upgraded, and that the project holds approval for four subsea cables into Asia. It was not specified whether those cables would carry energy, data or both. ICE is not building long-haul fibre itself; Tancock said fibre upgrades and possible subsea links are under discussion with carrier and customer partners, with spending dependent on confirmed demand. He said the four permitted cables give a base for later work rather than a commitment to build every one.

AREH is planned in stages, with ICE's longer-term ambition being up to 26GW of wind and solar against existing environmental approval for up to 15GW. Tancock said current talks envisage AI compute growing beyond 1GW of IT capacity after 2030, though no fixed share of the project's generation has been set aside for data centres. ICE also said ammonia is no longer planned at AREH, with any future production envisaged at the Boodarie strategic industrial area.