24/06/2025

Event Review: Insights and Industry Trends from Delta Connect ‘25

Delta Connect industry summit returned in April with speakers and thought leaders from Origin Energy, KPMG, AirTrunk, and more
Innovation in Action: Debate and discussion at Delta Connect provide the platform for industry growth and innovation

Delta Electronics Australia hosted the Delta Connect industry summit on 8 April 2025. The event convened over 150 experts across sectors including energy, AI, mining, manufacturing, and infrastructure for a focused exchange of insights and perspectives.

Delta Electronics is pleased to share key findings from the summit’s expert panel discussions, featuring speakers from leading organisations such as AirTrunk, KPMG, and Origin Energy, alongside Delta’s own specialists.

As industry forges new paths into local and world markets, the discussions at Delta Connect 2025 are extremely relevant to Australia’s ambitions of becoming a global manufacturing leader. The summit covered a wide range of topics, including electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, and the collective role of consumers, government, and industry in driving environmental sustainability—aligned with Delta’s brand promise Smarter. Greener. Together.

Delta Country Manager, Tom Hew:

“As a company that takes its environmental commitments very seriously, it was encouraging to see such a high level of industry participation for the return of Delta Connect, which was first hosted in 2024 as a way to spark debate and discussion around the technological challenges we all face. The findings from this year’s summit have been particularly illuminating and will provide a framework for businesses and government bodies alike to leverage tech trends which can reduce our overall environmental footprint, while also finding new ways to innovate for business growth.”

Delta Connect 2025 Key Takeaways

The following takeaways from Delta Connect 2025 reflect both the significant challenges facing industry today and the emerging opportunities for innovation and sustainable growth.

Data demands are rising, and so are sustainable solutions

Across sectors, industries are experiencing unprecedented growth in data-driven technologies—developments that require significantly more energy to support. Balancing this demand with the global imperative to reduce carbon emissions presents a meaningful opportunity for innovation and leadership.

Speaking at Delta Connect, AirTrunk Chief Financial and Commercial Officer, Prashant Murthy, highlighted a range of evolving operational considerations businesses are addressing, including supply chain complexity, carbon impact, talent acquisition, and social value. These now complement traditional factors such as capital, land availability, power, and water resources.

As a global leader in sustainable data centre infrastructure, AirTrunk showcased its forward-thinking approach to carbon reduction, underscoring the importance of a collaborative stakeholder ecosystem that includes customers, suppliers, governments, employees, communities, and investors.

AirTrunk shared two key initiatives it has implemented to reduce emissions and enhance transparency:

Internal Carbon Price (ICP): A hypothetical cost applied to each tonne of CO₂ equivalent to guide supplier decisions and reflect environmental impact, complementing Delta Electronics’ own approach. Since 2021, Delta has used funds from its internal carbon pricing program to drive major investments in energy efficiency and low-carbon innovations aligned with its net-zero goals.
Embodied Carbon Ratio (ECR): A metric that calculates the ratio of embodied carbon emissions from construction and fit-out against a data centre’s installed IT capacity.

AI will reshape organisations

At Delta Connect, James Mabbott, Partner in Charge at KPMG Futures, identified artificial intelligence (AI) as a transformative force reshaping industries globally. He noted that clients increasingly expect future services to be delivered faster, more cost-effectively, and at higher quality levels than today.

Crucially, Mr. Mabbott projected that around 40% of global jobs could be impacted by AI in the near future, resulting in an estimated 7% uplift in global GDP. However, this acceleration in AI adoption is also forecast to lead to a 165% increase in data centre power demand by 2030, underscoring the urgent need to align technological advancement with sustainable infrastructure.

The conversation also touched on quantum computing, which holds enormous potential in fields such as AI, financial modelling, materials science and drug discovery. Yet it also introduces new cybersecurity risks. Quantum computers could eventually compromise today’s encryption standards, making sensitive information and digital systems vulnerable to attacks, including the creation of fake websites and falsified documents once protected by digital signatures.

While governments are already taking steps to prepare for this future, Mr. Mabbott urged businesses to begin planning for the transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) now, highlighting a projected USD $7.1 billion global cost to migrate critical systems between 2025 and 2035.

AI and data are the perfect storm – energy usage must be reduced

The rapid development of AI technologies, and the infrastructure required to support them, is placing unprecedented pressure on land, energy, and water resources.

Steven Yen, from Delta Electronics Australia, shared that traditional alternating current (AC) data centre infrastructure is unlikely to meet the high energy demands of AI applications. He pointed to immersion cooling as a promising solution—reducing energy consumption by up to 60% compared to air cooling methods.

Mr. Yen also emphasized that AI and non-AI data centres should be designed differently from the outset. The specialised power regulation and cooling systems required for AI workloads demand purpose-built infrastructure, which can significantly improve efficiency and long-term sustainability.

Electric vehicles are gaining momentum and infrastructure must follow

Australia’s automotive landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation, as electric vehicles (EVs) gain market share and approach price parity with traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

Speaking at Delta Connect, Chau Le, General Manager of e-Mobility at Origin Energy, outlined key factors driving EV adoption in Australia—including improved cost-effectiveness and flexible usage options such as EV subscription models. EVs now represent 10.9% of new vehicle sales in Australia as of 2024.

However, as Ms. Le cautioned, this momentum needs to accelerate dramatically. In order to stay on track with international climate goals, 60% of vehicle sales globally must be electric by 2030. Achieving this milestone could help ensure that, by 2050:

Over 90% of heavy industry production becomes low-emission,
85% of buildings are zero-carbon ready,
Nearly 70% of electricity is generated from solar and wind.

While Ms. Le acknowledged the benefits of government incentives in further driving EV sales, she confirmed that infrastructure, particularly consumer-based public charging sites, needed further development for Australia to meet its EV aspirations. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, which has the potential to transform electric vehicles into mobile battery storage for households and Australia’s energy grid, was hailed as ‘the holy grail’ when looking at the infrastructure benefits of EVs.

Matt Nolan from Delta Electronics Australia echoed the need for better EV infrastructure, citing a number of current infrastructure challenges:

Early adopters relying primarily on home charging
Limited charger availability (approximately 4,000 connectors for over 244,000 EVs)
Reliability concerns, including broken chargers, slow charging speeds and vehicle compatibility problems
A lack of suitable solutions for commercial vehicles, such as trucks and buses

To address these issues, Mr. Nolan proposed a three-point infrastructure strategy:

Expand coverage with more chargers needed around the country
Improve reliability by reducing the number of broken chargers and enhance ongoing maintenance of existing sites
Offer diverse charging options across both high- and low-power needs

ESG must be at the core of all business operations

Speaking on Delta’s sustainability roadmap at Delta Connect, Delta Australia Country Manager Tom Hew stressed the importance of enhanced collaboration between industries in order to meet global environmental objectives.

As part of the RE100 initiative, which unites leading companies committed to sourcing 100 per cent renewable electricity, Mr. Hew outlined Delta Electronics’ progress toward its global RE100 target, which the company aims to achieve by 2030.

[Read more at: https://www.there100.org/about-us]

Mr. Hew also highlighted Delta’s broader Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy, including:

Coral restoration projects in collaboration with national agencies and marine labs
Establishment of a dedicated ESG Consulting Office
Support for Asia’s first LEED-certified zero-energy school campus

These initiatives reflect Delta’s goal to embed sustainability not just in its own operations, but across the industries it supports.

David Leal, Delta Electronics’ Vice President of Business for Southeast Asia, provided additional context around the Asia-Pacific region’s growing role in supporting global sustainability and electrification. He pointed to APAC’s increasing manufacturing capabilities and component supply—represented at Delta Connect through an electrified scooter powered by a Delta charger, showcasing the synergy between regional innovation and local opportunity.

Delta Connect will return in 2026 with a new panel of speakers, continuing Delta’s mission to foster greater industry collaboration and partnership for a sustainable future.

Event Review: Insights and Industry Trends from Delta Connect ‘25

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