Firmus Technologies accidently reveals it wanted to use Tasmanian Irrigation water for AI data centre

Firmus Technologies wants to use Tasmanian Irrigation water, which is primarily used for agricultural purposes, for its proposed data centre at Wesley Vale.

On a now-deleted part of the FAQ section of Firmus’ website, the company said the site was not connected to TasWater.

"We will likely use Tas Irrigation, but we do not want to highlight this yet, as they are yet to agree to supply us, as we fall outside their normal customer base (agriculture) and they need legal approval to supply us.

"[The] majority of our water use for cooling will come from rainwater capture from [the] roof."

But Tasmanian Irrigation said it has no undertaking with Firmus.

"Our legislative framework is set up to enable the supply of water for agriculture and for hydrogen production,” a Tasmanian Irrigation spokesperson said.

"Any application for water from industries outside of this would require consideration by the Tasmanian government and engagement with the community, including our customers."

Firmus has since said that the parts about using Tasmanian Irrigation water were internal information that was inadvertently published.

It also said it had not yet made a formal request to Tasmanian Irrigation.

Firmus is building an AI data centre in the Launceston suburb of St Leonards and is proposing two more facilities in Bell Bay and Wesley Vale.