Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has shared a clip slamming the loud hum coming from a data centre in a dense Sydney suburb.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has shared a clip slamming the loud mechanical hum coming from an data centre in Sydney’s Lane Cove West, as backlash grows over the industrial machinery being planted beside homes.

“While the government drags their feet, these AI factories are already here, and already impacting water, energy, noise, and heat in communities across Australia,” she wrote on Instagram.

Hanson-Young shared the clip ahead of the first public hearing of the Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence and data centres.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has shared a clip slamming the loud mechanical hum coming from an data centre in Sydney’s Lane Cove West, as backlash grows over the industrial machinery being planted beside homes. @sarah_hansonyoung

Data centres also run cloud storage, banking, healthcare, streaming services and government systems, and existed long before things like ChatGPT.

But the AI boom has radically increased their proposed size, energy appetite and urgency, turning what was once industrial infrastructure into a suburban planning fight.

Five data centres are now operating, approved or proposed inside the Lane Cove West Business Park. Across Lane Cove, Willoughby and Ryde, local councils have identified 27 existing or potential sites.

Much of the immediate anger centres on Goodman Group’s separate Project Mars proposal: a three-storey data centre designed to operate around the clock and draw approximately 90 megawatts of power.

Goodman says the proposed building would sit at least 46 metres from the nearest residential receiver. The site is also about 160 metres from Lane Cove West Public School and beside bushland and a heavily used sporting precinct.

The proposal attracted 374 public submissions, with just nine supporting it. Residents have raised concerns about noise, heat, water use, power demand and plans to store more than one million litres of diesel for backup generators.

Goodman’s general manager of development, Ben McGilp, acknowledged at this week’s hearing that the company had not won over the neighbourhood.

“Clearly, we’ve got a difference of opinion in Lane Cove with our community, and it’s something that sits uncomfortably with us,” he said.

“And we ultimately would like to bridge that in some form.”

Goodman expects to decide by the end of the year whether to proceed.

Lane Cove Council has meanwhile called for a temporary halt to state-significant data-centre applications in the area until stronger planning and sustainability rules are established.

AirTrunk told the inquiry its operating facility was about 600 metres from the residential boundary adjoining the industrial precinct, although one apartment building was roughly 220 metres away.

Its Lane Cove campus is approaching capacity, with another 40MW being built.

Australia had 162 operating data centres with a combined capacity of about 1.5GW in March. The ABC subsequently identified 27 approved but unbuilt centres with at least another 3.38GW of capacity.

The Australian Energy Market Operator expects data-centre electricity consumption across the National Electricity Market to surge from about 5 terawatt hours in 2025-26 to 34TWh by 2035-36 — rising from approximately three per cent to 13 per cent of all grid-supplied electricity.

The Albanese Government plans to legislate national standards in early 2027 requiring large data centres to underwrite new electricity supply, cover their share of grid-connection costs and improve water efficiency.

However, the proposed rules will generally not capture projects already approved or under construction. Hanson-Young has demanded a moratorium until the protections exist.

“In the absence of a moratorium on building and approving new data centres, then these rules must be retrospective because otherwise they’re worthless,” she said.

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‘24hrs a day’: Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young shares clip slamming data centre noise in Sydney’s Lane Cove