A $250 million expansion of the AquaNet recycled water network will begin construction next month in Western Sydney, paid for in full by the private sector, with a new data centre as its first customer, opening new opportunities for industry and community use.
coNEXA through its AquaNet business will supply up to 16 million litres of recycled water a day from its Fairfield recycled water plant to NEXTDC’s S4 Sydney data centre at Horsley Park. It is believed to be the largest recycled water connection to a data centre in Australia.
The project has IPART approval and the first water is expected to flow in late 2027.
Up to 5.8 billion litres of water a year that would otherwise be released to the ocean will be reused, and the wastewater equivalent of up to 35,000 homes will be taken out of a constrained sewerage network.
“Data centres are essential to a thriving digital economy, and with that comes a responsibility to use resources carefully. Cooling S4 Sydney with AquaNet’s recycled water puts that responsibility into operation,” NEXTDC Chief Engineering and Design Officer Jeff Van Zetten said.
The project puts the NSW Government’s Data Centre Guidelines into practice: maximum energy efficiency, recycled water for cooling and infrastructure fully funded by the private sector, in one project.
“This is exactly the type of project we envisioned when we released the NSW Data Centre Guidelines. Instead of sending billions of litres out to sea each year, we’re putting that water to productive use and building infrastructure that can support communities and industry for decades to come,” said NSW Minister for Water Rose Jackson.
“Recycled water projects like this one will help us secure our water future, supporting the growth of new industries without impacting water supply for our communities.”
Once developed, S4 Sydney is designed to provide up to 365MW of IT capacity in a Tier IV-targeted facility for global cloud platforms, AI cloud providers, enterprise and government customers. Recycled water allows cooling designs that need less power. At full IT load, S4 Sydney is designed for a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.125, more than 25% below the 2026 global average, according to the Uptime Institute.
“S4 Sydney is designed to be world leading on energy efficiency, and recycled water is part of how we get there,” Mr Van Zetten said.
An expanding recycled water network in Western Sydney enables other industry and local councils to connect to this new infrastructure, including for irrigation of public open spaces, keeping them green and cool through dry summers and periods of water restrictions.
“NSW has set a clear direction for how the State can sustainably and responsibly host data centres, and recycled water is a key part of it. NEXTDC’s commitment to S4 Sydney unlocks the scale and demand to build the first stage of a network that will serve more of Western Sydney industry and the community over time,” coNEXA CEO Kurt Dahl said.
The AquaNet expansion will support up to 200 construction jobs, as well as ongoing roles, in Western Sydney.
AquaNet was established after the Millennium Drought and has supplied high-quality recycled water to Western Sydney businesses and industry since 2011.