Energy North drops 2028 start for 1 GW Project Ares after NT EPA pauses assessment
Startup Energy North has withdrawn its June 2028 first-power target for the 1 GW off-grid Project Ares data centre after the Northern Territory EPA suspended its assessment clock on 7 October 2026 to seek federal advice.
Energy North no longer has a June 2028 first-power target for Project Ares, a planned 1 GW gas and solar data centre on a Northern Territory cattle station, after the territory's Environment Protection Authority put its assessment timetable on hold. Reuters broke the story in an exclusive on Sunday 1 November 2026. On 7 October the EPA suspended the seven-week period it works to when deciding what a project must satisfy, said it would seek advice from Canberra, which is still shaping its expectations for data centres and AI infrastructure, and set no new timeframe.
Daniel Hunter, Energy North's vice president of project development, confirmed the date was only indicative when the project was referred for assessment and that the company has stopped working to it. The company said it will confirm timing once the regulator sets terms for an environmental impact statement, and it would not name its financiers. Construction Review reported that the delay is not a rejection, and that the project must go through a full environmental impact statement, the highest tier of assessment under the NT's Environment Protection Act 2019.
The EPA found 10 potential impacts, among them pressure on water systems and harm to Aboriginal sacred sites, and said it lacked confidence that the proposed mitigation would work. Groundwater is a central issue: the referral allows for extraction of up to four gigalitres a year from the Montejinni Limestone Aquifer in the Wiso Basin, and the regulator wants more information on the effects. The Northern Land Council has also pointed to the practical difficulty of consulting Traditional Owners in remote areas.
Project Ares is designed as an off-grid campus with 1 GW of IT load, 3,000 MWp of solar and 16 GWh of battery storage, backed by up to 1,038 MW of gas generation for firming. The referral describes two 500 MW phases at Murranji Station in the Barkly Region, about 683 km south of Darwin, with a peak construction workforce of about 4,300. Energy North said Phase 1 power could arrive 12 to 18 months after a final investment decision, subject to funding and approvals, and that its founder has paid for development so far.
The hold follows NextDC's decision to postpone a Melbourne expansion over energy supply concerns and Goodman's withdrawal of a Sydney project after resident opposition. Reuters called the Ares delay the largest timing setback yet for an Australian data centre. The NT government is reportedly in talks with 12 data centre-related projects, and Beetaloo Energy has a separate proposed 2 GW data centre near Darwin that would also generate its own power. Capacity Media flagged two things to watch: when the EPA sets terms for the impact statement, and whether Canberra's data centre policy arrives first.