At a glance
The ACT Territory Planning Authority approved CDC's Beard 2 data centre, with conditions, on 29 September 2026.
The three-storey building has 12 data halls and 84MW of capacity. The application puts the cost of works at A$203.5 million.
The ACT decided it 40 days after CDC lodged the application, and 11 days after public comment closed.
Beard 2 would take the capacity CDC lists for its Canberra campuses from 156MW to 240MW.
Before Beard 2 operates, its expected water use and evidence of engagement with Icon Water, the territory's water utility, must be filed under the ACT's environmental opinion.
CDC Data Centres has planning approval for Beard 2, an 84MW data centre beside its first building at Beard, an industrial suburb on Canberra's eastern edge near Queanbeyan. The ACT's development application register records the decision on application 202645149 as "Approval Conditional", dated 29 September 2026.
The application describes a three-storey building of 29,924 square metres holding 12 data halls, the secured rooms that house the servers, with emergency generators on site and space for a future substation. It puts the total cost of works at A$203.5 million. CDC is the lessee of the block, and the application was lodged on its behalf by Canberra Town Planning.
Beard 2 is the second building on the Beard campus, and CDC lodged the plans for it in August 2026.
Approval came 11 days after public comment closed
Step | Date | Detail |
|---|---|---|
Environmental significance opinion | 13 May 2026 | No full environmental impact statement needed, subject to conditions |
Development application lodged | 20 August 2026 | Application 202645149 |
Public comment | 31 August to 18 September 2026 | Open to written representations |
Decision | 29 September 2026 | Approval with conditions |
Source: ACT development application register, application 202645149; ACT environmental significance opinion ESO 202600012.
The first step was the environmental significance opinion, the ACT planning check that decides whether a proposal needs a full environmental impact statement. The opinion issued on 13 May 2026 found it did not. It describes "12 data halls with a total capacity of 84 MW", backed by emergency generators with a combined capacity of up to 20MW.
Beard 2 would take CDC's listed Canberra capacity to 240MW
CDC's Canberra campus page lists three operating campuses and Beard, which it shows as under construction.
Campus | Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|
Hume One | 21MW | Operating |
Hume Two | 51MW | Operating |
Fyshwick | 45MW | Operating |
Beard 1 | 39MW | Under construction |
Beard 2 | 84MW | Approved 29 September 2026 |
Source: CDC Canberra campus page for Hume, Fyshwick and Beard 1; ACT environmental significance opinion ESO 202600012 and development application register for Beard 2.
Those four listed figures total 156MW, and 240MW with Beard 2. At 84MW, Beard 2 on its own is larger than any of CDC's existing Canberra campuses on the company's figures. The guide to Australia's new data centre capacity from 2026 to 2030 lists projects by year once they carry a target date, and CDC has not published one for Beard 2.
Together the two Beard buildings come to about 45,272 square metres of floor space, and CDC's planning report expects up to 54 staff across both buildings at any one time.
The ACT Government estimates Canberra has 15 data centres, eight of them CDC's, the ABC reported on 23 August 2026.
The environmental opinion requires a water filing before operations
Before operations start, the proponent must provide details of expected water use, the infrastructure serving it, and evidence of engagement with Icon Water. The proponent must also justify its conclusion that the building will not use or draw water on an environmentally significant scale, to the planning authority's satisfaction.
CDC's planning report says the chilled water cooling system becomes a closed loop once it is filled, "with no further water required". The opinion's other conditions cover the backup generators, which must be designed and run to manage air emissions, noise, fuel storage, spill and fire risk; noise from all plant at the site boundary; a plan to manage known soil contamination before construction; and petroleum storage and handling to the ACT's petroleum storage guidelines.
The ACT set out its position on data centres on 26 August 2026 and aims to release a draft Data Centre Framework in early 2027. Beard 2 was approved ahead of that framework, and the ACT joins the states and territories setting out a data centre policy.
What to watch
A construction date for Beard 2. CDC has not published a start or completion date, and the building joins the national capacity guide once it has one.
The water filing. Under the environmental opinion, expected water use and the Icon Water engagement are due with the ACT before operations start.
The ACT's early 2027 draft framework. The draft is to set out proposed locations, assessment criteria and sustainability requirements for data centres in the territory.