Data centres need coal like a hole in the head

Friday 7 August 2026

LVO is back at the coalface with a blunt pick today.

The reality is that the expansion of data centres, which require a 24/7 power supply, is incompatible with the closure of baseload coal generators and the transition to an intermittent, weather-dependent system.

This is an assertion and straw man argument, not logic.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.