NEXTDC S4 data centre to use recycled water from coNEXA

NEXTDC’s S4 Sydney data centre will draw upon recycled water from coNEXA’s expanded AquaNet recycled water network in Western Sydney.

The $250 million, privately funded expansion of the recycled water network begins construction this month, with the new data centre at Horsley Park set to be its first customer.

In what the companies describe as the largest recycled water connection to a data centre in Australia, AquaNet will supply up to 16 million litres of recycled water a day from its Fairfield recycled water plant to the S4 Sydney data centre.

Approved by IPART (the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW) the recycled water is expected to be deployed in late 2027. Up to 5.8 billion litres of water a year that would otherwise be released to the ocean will be reused.

Once developed, S4 Sydney is designed to provide up to 365 MW of IT capacity in a Tier IV-targeted facility for global cloud platforms, AI cloud providers, enterprise and government customers. Recycled water has been chosen to cool S4 Sydney as it allows for more energy-efficient cooling designs, the companies said. 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,” said NEXTDC Chief Engineering and Design Officer Jeff Van Zetten.

The expanded recycled water network is expected to supply other industry and local councils in Western Sydney, including for irrigation of public open spaces.

“This is exactly the type of project we envisioned when we released the NSW Data Centre Guidelines,” said NSW Minister for Water Rose Jackson. “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.

“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.”

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