Australian superannuation fund Rest Super is investing in a data center and battery storage project in Brisbane from Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.
Announced this week, the company has committed a (AU$1 billion) $656 million infrastructure investment to Quinbrook.
The commitment will provide exposure to a range of assets, such as solar and battery projects and green data storage centers, including Quinbrook’s Supernode data campus in Brisbane.
“In a world increasingly reliant on data, and through the global growth in cloud-based technologies and AI, data centers have become big business, and demand for this critical infrastructure is expected to accelerate,” said Rest CIO Andrew Lill. “Repositories for the storage, management, and dissemination of data require significant investments and huge amounts of energy.”
Announced last year, the 30-hectare Supernode site will host up to four data centers. The site, located north of Brisbane in Brendale, Moreton Bay, will connect directly to the adjacent South Pine substation, offering up to 800MW of power supply capacity. Timelines for development weren’t shared.
Quinbrook acquired the land in 2021. The company describes Supernode as a constructor of data centers on Australia’s east coast that are powered by renewable energy.
Quinbrook is also planning a 750MW battery energy storage system (BESS) on the site that is due live in Q2 2025. The batteries have the option to be managed by Quinbrook’s wholly-owned portfolio company, Habitat Energy.
Quinbrook’s other data center venture is Rowan Digital in the US. Set up in 2021 by Quinbrook and Birch Infrastructure, the company is already developing a 500MW campus in Temple, Texas.
The company is also developing a four-building campus in Oregon, and is aiming to build a 750,000-square-foot (69,680 sqm) data center in the planned Quantum Loophole campus in Maryland.
Quinbrook, an ESG-focused investment manager, has since taken over complete ownership of the Rowan.
Rowan has other developments listed on its website across North America including data center projects Meriwether and Schwab in Oregon, Matterhorn in California, and Moriah, Cinco, and Brown in Texas.
