This episode is best watched on video, as we often refer to some calculations I wrote on a whiteboard. 

[Recorded 30 September 2026.]

Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to work out what it would take, on the energy side, for Australia to build 10 to 15 gigawatts of AI compute by 2030.

So I sat down with Tim Nelson, one of Australia's foremost energy economists. Tim chaired last year's independent review of the National Electricity Market, known as the Nelson Review. He was previously Chief Economist at AGL and is currently Head of Markets at Snowy Hydro (though he joins me in his own capacity).

We discuss whether data centres could eat half of Australia's electricity grid, how they could actually lower power prices for everyone, what smelters can teach us about building renewable generation quickly, what could bottleneck the compute build-out, and why the best place to train AI might be off-grid in the outback.

Sponsors

• e61: a non-partisan economic research institute focused on Australian public policy. To receive a copy of the new essay I co-authored with e61 on data centres and the compute economy, go to https://www.e61.in/joewalker.
• Vanta: helps businesses automate security and compliance needs. For a limited time, get one thousand dollars off Vanta at https://www.vanta.com/joe. Use the discount code "JOE".

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