Land of the long ‘green’ cloud
New Zealand is well-placed to build a ‘‘green’’ data centre industry, a report commissioned by NZ Trade and Enterprise has concluded.
But the report, by management consultancy Analysys Mason, found high wholesale electricity prices could be a fly in the ointment, as could be competition from Tasmania which shares much of the advantage of a cool climate.
Technology giants Microsoft and Amazon Web Services have budgeted billions of dollars to build new data centres in Auckland.
But Analysys Mason also emphasised the potential for the South Island to become a hub for serving up cloud computing services to Australians from ‘‘green’’ data centres, with a new submarine fibre-optic cable network connecting Southland to multiple continents, available from 2025.
NZTE general manager of investment Dylan Lawrence said the report showed ‘‘New Zealand, and specifically the South Island, are strong potential locations to build green data centres’’.
Analysys Mason estimated ‘‘colocation’’ data centres, set up to provide services to third parties, could be raking in $898 million a year in New Zealand by 2030, almost double their revenues last year. It also forecast the power requirements of data centres in New Zealand would grow from 81 megawatts last year to 303MW by 2030, equivalent to a little over half of the demand of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.
New Zealand-founded Datagrid is planning to build a huge data centre near Invercargill. Its chief executive, Remi Galasso, is also the driving force behind the venture to connect Southland to Australia, North America and Southeast Asia with the Hawaiki Nui cable network, and is involved in a Chilean Government initiative that could connect Southland to South America and potentially Antarctica.
Analysys Mason said spot electricity prices in Tasmania were about 2.9 US cents (NZ 4.6c) a kilowatt-hour and all its electricity was renewably generated. Spot electricity prices have hovered above NZ 20c/kWh in New Zealand for much of this year. Overall, it expected the South Island and Tasmania might share the spoils.
British company Lake Parime plans to open a data centre facility in central Otago by October, powered by Contact Energy’s Clyde hydro scheme.
Another company, Grid Share, is involved in a similar initiative at Pioneer Energy’sMonowai Power Station.
Local startup T4 Group is planning amid-sized ‘‘high-spec’’ data centre in Southland.