National

Australian tech giant taps into community solar farm

By Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson

Oct 2, 2026

Goulburn solar — A community-owned solar project has won a major contract to supply power to a tech company. -PR IMAGE

A solar farm owned by a group of community investors has secured a 10-year deal with one of Australia's biggest technology companies to help power its headquarters.

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Atlassian announced its virtual power purchase agreement with the Goulburn Community Energy Co-operative on Friday, in a deal that will fund almost 70 per cent of the project's output over the next decade.

Electricity generated by the project in NSW's Southern Tablelands will help to meet the renewable energy needs of the tech firm's 39-storey Sydney base when it opens in 2028.

The announcement comes amid heated debate over whether technology companies should be required to invest in renewable energy generation to meet growing demands from data centres and artificial intelligence operations in Australia.

The solar and battery farm, located on 2.2 hectares of industrial land in Goulburn, features 2300 solar panels and a four megawatt-hour battery.

Owned by a group of about 288 local investors, who contributed a minimum of $400, the farm connected to the electricity grid in March 2026, 12 years after it was proposed.

The agreement follows a $2.3 million NSW government grant and would support local workers and suppliers, Goulburn Community Energy Co-operative chair Andrew Bray said.

"Our active volunteers and investor community worked patiently and diligently across a number of years to see this project come to fruition," he said.

"To have a blue-chip Australian company like Atlassian come on board as a commercial partner is a huge vote of confidence in what we have built."

While the company did not disclose the value of the agreement, Atlassian chief sustainability officer Jessica Hyman said it would help the firm meet its commitment to power its Sydney headquarters with 100 per cent renewable energy.

"Reaching net zero takes a team effort across the entire energy system," she said.

"It's an investment that adds clean power to the shared grid that everyone benefits from, while ensuring Atlassian Central HQ is backed by local renewables from day one."

Atlassian's building, which was estimated to cost $1.4 billion, could be the world's tallest hybrid timber tower at launch, and is designed to anchor Sydney's Tech Central precinct.