AI’s Next Bottleneck Is Not Computing — It Is Time-to-Power

AI’s Next Bottleneck Is Not Computing — It Is Time-to-Power Why the next generation of AI data centres may need to be designed together with their energy infrastructure Ahilan Raman | Managing Director, Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) The global AI race is usually discussed in terms of GPUs, models, semiconductor supply and computing capacity. But another constraint is rapidly becoming just as important: Where will the megawatts come from — and how quickly can they be delivered? An AI data centre can increasingly be constructed using repeatable, modular infrastructure. The electricity network supplying it operates on a very different development timescale. That mismatch is beginning to reshape data-centre engineering. The power system is becoming part of the data centre Australia provides a particularly interesting example. AEMO reported that, by the end of the March 2026 quarter, 11 large data-centre projects above 5 MW, representing 5.4 GW of maximum demand, were already progressing through the National Electricity Market transmission-connection process. Around 40% of that capacity was in Victoria. AEMO said current experience suggested approximately a two-year application-to-energisation timeframe, although individual projects vary. The policy direction is also changing. In August, the Australian Energy Market Commission recommended that data centres should bring new clean, firm capacity, operate flexibly and make efficient use of the network. It specifically identified co-location with generation as one way of reducing network pressure. This points toward an important change in thinking. Instead of treating electricity as a utility connection that is considered after the data centre has been designed, perhaps the data centre and its energy system increasingly need to be engineered as one infrastructure project. Why 20 MW is an interesting scale Not every AI facility needs to begin as a 500 MW or 1 GW hyperscale campus. There is growing evidence for modular deployment at much smaller increments. Australian developer QORINAI describes a delivered modular project comprising eight transportable 2.5 MW modules, with capacity contracted in stages from 1.9 MW to 20 MW over five months. Its current development model describes repeatable campus blocks of approximately 10–50 MW, with dedicated substations, cooling plants and data halls. That is significant. A 20 MW facility is large enough to support substantial AI computing infrastructure, but still small enough to consider a dedicated energy island and staged deployment. And there is no reason that the modularity of the computing infrastructure must correspond exactly with the modularity of the power plant. A data centre might comprise several independently deployable computing blocks while a multiple-engine power island feeds a common electrical bus. Modularity should occur where it makes engineering and commercial sense — not because every subsystem must have the same module size. AI is also changing cooling Increasing rack densities are making the old distinction between electrical infrastructure and cooling infrastructure less useful. QORINAI, for example, is designing Australian AI infrastructure around direct-to-chip liquid cooling and cites design points as high as 250 kW per rack. As rack density rises, cooling becomes an increasingly important part of the total energy balance. That raises another engineering question: Why design power generation and cooling independently if the power plant is simultaneously producing useful thermal energy? A conventional assessment may look primarily at electrical efficiency. A trigeneration assessment asks a broader question: What useful outputs can we obtain from every unit of primary energy entering the system? Electricity is one output. Recoverable heat is another. Cooling produced from otherwise recoverable thermal energy can become a third. For AI infrastructure, that distinction matters. Behind-the-meter power is moving into the mainstream The trend is already visible internationally. Reuters reported in late September that demand for smaller gas turbines is rising as data-centre developers pursue rapid behind-the-meter generation to avoid grid-connection delays and long lead times for large turbines. Enverus projects 29.6 GW of behind-the-meter gas generation additions by 2030, with data centres accounting for 88% of that capacity. A few days later, Enerflex announced a contract to engineer and assemble 450 MW of behind-the-meter natural-gas generation for a North American data-centre developer. The attraction is straightforward. Instead of asking: “When will the grid be ready for my data centre?” the developer can begin asking: “Can I bring firm power to the data centre?” But there is an important problem. Simply moving conventional fossil generation behind the meter solves the time-to-power problem without necessarily solving the carbon problem. That is where CEWT is exploring a different architecture. Can the carbon itself be recycled? At Clean Energy and Water Technologies, we are developing a 20 MW grid-independent Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) Trigeneration concept for data-centre applications in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. The principle is different from simply installing gas engines beside a data centre. Methane provides firm power. The resulting carbon dioxide is captured. Instead of treating that CO₂ purely as waste for disposal, CRT treats carbon as a circulating process material. Captured CO₂ is combined with hydrogen-rich syngas and renewable hydrogen and converted back to methane through methanation. The methane returns to power generation. The carbon therefore circulates through: Methane → Power → CO₂ → Methanation → Methane Renewable hydrogen supplies new energy into that carbon cycle. The objective is not to claim that carbon disappears. Quite the opposite. Every molecule of carbon must have a destination. That requires a rigorous carbon ledger covering methane, CO, CO₂, recycle, inventory, purge, vents and losses independently of the plant’s energy balance. Trigeneration changes the system boundary Our current 20 MW concept combines a multi-engine firm-power island with carbon recovery, H₂-rich syngas, renewable hydrogen and methanation. But electricity is only part of the architecture. Gas-engine thermal energy and the exothermic heat released during methanation represent potentially useful energy streams. For a data centre, that heat can potentially support absorption cooling or other thermal services alongside conventional high-density liquid-cooling infrastructure. The appropriate measure therefore becomes broader than generator electrical efficiency alone. It becomes: How much useful computing-supporting infrastructure can we obtain from each MW of primary energy? That is a different optimisation problem. Why Latrobe Valley matters There is another reason we believe Latrobe Valley deserves attention. The region is already attracting major data-centre interest. Keppel has secured rights over a 123-hectare site near Hazelwood for a proposed data-centre campus with potential access to 720 MW of gross power. The Victorian Government identifies existing energy infrastructure, industrial land and access to sustainable raw water among the site’s advantages. Latrobe City Council’s September update says the Hazelwood North project has not yet lodged its planning approval and that community consultation is expected later in 2026. That is important context. It suggests Latrobe Valley is not merely a former power-generation region searching for a new purpose. It could become part of Australia’s next generation of energy-intensive digital infrastructure. A smaller 20 MW project can play a different role from a 720 MW hyperscale campus. It can demonstrate an alternative architecture. From grid connection to energy platform For decades, the conventional development sequence has effectively been: Land → Grid Connection → Data Centre. The emerging model could increasingly become: Land → Firm Energy Platform → Data Centre → Grid Integration when appropriate. That does not mean abandoning the electricity grid. Nor does it mean every data centre should generate all of its own power. It means recognising that time-to-power has become a fundamental project-design variable. And once power generation moves closer to the computing load, engineers have an opportunity to reconsider the whole system: electricity, cooling, water, carbon, hydrogen, storage and waste heat. For CEWT, the engineering philosophy remains straightforward: Every MW must have a source and destination. Every molecule must have a source and destination. Every litre of water must have a pathway. The AI infrastructure race may therefore not ultimately be won only by whoever has the most advanced GPUs. It may also be won by those who can provide those GPUs with dependable megawatts, cooling and supporting infrastructure at the speed at which AI capacity needs to be deployed. Time-to-power is becoming a design parameter. And that may fundamentally change how we design the next generation of data centres. Sources • AEMO, “Digital demand surge”, 2026. • Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), electricity/data-centre policy developments, 2026. • QORINAI, Australian AI data-centre and modular infrastructure information. • Reuters, reporting on behind-the-meter gas generation for data centres, September 2026. • Enerflex, behind-the-meter generation project announcement, 2026. • ABC News, reporting on Keppel’s proposed Latrobe Valley/Hazelwood data-centre development, January 2026. • Latrobe City Council, Proposed Developments in Our Region, September 2026.

Design Philosophy for 20 MW Trigeneration fecility for Data Centres

Design Philosophy The 20 MW CRT Trigeneration demonstration will be designed around a simple systems-engineering principle: Every molecule has a destination. Every MW must produce useful work. The objective is therefore not merely to generate 20 MW of electricity. It is to maximise the useful output obtained from the primary energy entering the complete system. For an AI data-centre application, the energy pathway should be considered as an integrated chain: Primary Energy → Firm Power → Compute → Cooling → Workload → Useful AI Output This leads to an overarching performance metric: Useful AI Output per MW of Primary Energy Traditional generating efficiency measures the conversion of fuel or primary energy into electricity. Data-centre PUE measures the relationship between facility electricity consumption and IT electricity consumption. Neither metric alone describes the performance of the complete energy-to-compute system. CRT Trigeneration therefore proposes a broader systems approach in which electrical generation, carbon recycling, hydrogen, heat recovery, cooling and high-density AI computing are considered as one integrated energy architecture. Three nested performance levels can be measured: 1. CRT System Efficiency How effectively primary energy is converted into firm electricity and useful recoverable thermal energy. 2. Data-Centre Energy Efficiency How much delivered electrical energy reaches the computing equipment rather than auxiliary infrastructure. 3. Compute Productivity How much useful AI workload is completed for each MW of primary energy entering the overall system. The ultimate objective is not simply the lowest-carbon electron or the most efficient GPU considered independently. It is to maximise useful computational work from constrained primary energy while maintaining firm, continuous operation. This provides the engineering basis for the 20 MW CRT Trigeneration demonstration and a framework that can subsequently be scaled modularly to larger AI and industrial energy infrastructure.

20 MW CRT Trigeneration Latrobe Valley Data Centre Demonstration | Victoria, Australia

CLEAN ENERGY AND WATER TECHNOLOGIES PTY LTD 20 MW CRT Trigeneration Latrobe Valley Data Centre Demonstration | Victoria, Australia PUBLIC PROJECT OVERVIEW | V1.0 | OCTOBER 2026 A proposed 20 MW continuous energy platform integrating firm on-site electricity, useful heat, cooling and carbon recycling for data-centre infrastructure. The infrastructure challenge AI and high-density digital infrastructure require continuous electrical power, increasing cooling capacity and rapid deployment. Where grid connection, network augmentation or firm capacity cannot be delivered on the required schedule, the energy system can become a critical path for the data-centre project. CEWT's proposed response CEWT is developing the 20 MW CRT Trigeneration platform as an integrated energy system designed together with the data-centre load. The project combines firm primary generation, ride-through support, recovery of useful thermal energy, cooling integration and carbon recycling within one engineered system. Current public design basis Parameter Current screening basis Net continuous electrical output 20.0 MWe Installed generation 22.5 MWe (5 x 4.5 MWe screening configuration) Annual operating basis 8,500 h/y Annual firm electricity 170,000 MWh/y Recoverable thermal efficiency 44.8% screening basis Total CHP efficiency 91.0% screening basis Status note: These figures are screening/design-basis values and remain subject to FEED and vendor validation. How the architecture works Primary Energy → Firm Power → Compute → Cooling → Useful Output Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) treats carbon as a recyclable molecular carrier and renewable hydrogen as the replacement chemical-energy input. Within the energy island, combustion, heat recovery, cooling, CO₂ recovery and fuel regeneration are integrated through mass balance, energy balance and heat integration. Detailed proprietary reaction ratios and process conditions are not included in this public overview.   Designed as an integrated infrastructure platform Firm primary power — Primary generation is sized for continuous duty rather than relying on batteries for bulk energy. Ride-through and power quality — DRUPS/battery systems are reserved for millisecond-to-second ride-through, power quality and transition support. Useful heat and cooling — Recoverable generation heat is directed toward cooling and other useful thermal duties. Carbon recycling — CO₂ is intended to be captured and recycled within CRT rather than treating atmospheric release as the normal endpoint of combustion. Grid optionality — A grid connection may be retained where commercially useful, while the primary duty is designed to be sustainable without continuous grid supply. Resource accountability CEWT is developing the project under a common Resource Accountability Framework. The objective is to account for carbon, energy, water and materials/nature as interconnected engineering ledgers, and relate them to useful output. CARBON ENERGY WATER MATERIALS & NATURE Carbon circulation, capture, recycle and losses Electrical, thermal and chemical energy accounted together Withdrawal, process use, recovery, recycle and net demand Material lifecycle, land and natural-resource dependencies Every molecule has a destination. Every unit of energy has a purpose. Every litre of water has an account. Every material has a lifecycle. MEASURE → BALANCE → RECYCLE → RECOVER → MINIMISE → VERIFY What the demonstration is intended to establish • Vendor-validated performance for the 20 MW continuous-duty energy platform. • An integrated mass and energy balance covering firm power, hydrogen duty, carbon recycling and heat/cooling integration. • A practical data-centre interface for primary power, ride-through, redundancy and cooling. • Vendor-supported CAPEX/OPEX, construction schedule and commissioning basis. • A measurable carbon, energy, water and materials/nature accounting structure for project verification. Development pathway 1 Technical validation 2 Commercial validation 3 Cost validation 4 Financing validation 5 FID The immediate priority is to validate the present design basis, secure the firm-power/cooling customer structure, reduce hydrogen-demand uncertainty, and replace screening cost estimates with vendor-supported FEED costs. CEWT is developing the 20 MW CRT Trigeneration Platform to address a data centre's energy constraint as an integrated infrastructure challenge - combining firm power, cooling, useful heat and carbon management within one engineered system. Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) Public Project Overview | V1.0 | October 2026 Development-stage information only. Performance, project cost, schedule, commercial arrangements and financing remain subject to FEED, vendor confirmation, customer agreements and investment approvals.

RESOURCE ACCOUNTABILITY — OUR CONTRIBUTION TO NATURE AND HUMANITY

RESOURCE ACCOUNTABILITY — OUR CONTRIBUTION TO NATURE AND HUMANITY For many years, sustainability has largely been measured through one lens: carbon emissions. Carbon matters enormously. But nature is much larger than carbon. Every industrial system draws upon resources — energy, water, materials, land and natural systems. The question is not simply what we consume, but whether we understand where those resources come from, how efficiently we use them, what we recover, what we recycle, and what we ultimately return to nature. At Clean Energy and Water Technologies (CEWT), this thinking has led us towards a Resource Accountability Framework. Our principle is simple: Every molecule has a destination. Every unit of energy has a purpose. Every litre of water has an account. Every material has a lifecycle. We therefore look at our technologies through four interconnected ledgers: Carbon → Energy → Water → Materials & Nature The objective is not merely to reduce an emission at the end of a process. It is to design the process itself so that resources are measured, balanced, recovered and recycled wherever practicable. This thinking applies across our work in Carbon Recycling Technology, Green Iron, firm power for data centres and Direct Air Capture. Nature operates through cycles. Perhaps industry must learn to do the same. Resource accountability is therefore more than an engineering methodology for CEWT. We see it as our direct contribution to protecting nature while meeting the energy, materials, water and digital infrastructure needs of humanity. Measure → Balance → Recycle → Recover → Minimise → Verify That is the direction in which we intend to build.

CEWT Resources Accountability Framework Every molecule has a destination. Every unit of energy has a purpose. Every litre of water has an account. Every material has a lifecycle.