Mega data centre approved

Datagrid New Zealand has been given full resource consent to develop a US$2bn 280MW hyperscale data centre in Makarewa near Invercargill on South Island.

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The scheme is being developed by Remi Galasso, founder and CEO of Datagrid New Zealand. The scheme is near the proposed landing site for a subsea cable from Sydney and Melbourne that has been approved. The cable will provide direct global connectivity to support large-scale compute infrastructure.

Local annual average temperature is 9.8°C, which allows extensive use of natural cooling and can significantly reduce energy costs compared with warmer data centre hubs in Australia or Asia, Datagrid said. 

The project is near high-capacity transmission power lines to support Rio Tinto's Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.