Up to 1200 workers would be needed to build South Island data centre

Tuesday, 15 December 2020

A chunk of southern farmland could become part of the answer when it comes to storing massive amounts of digital data.

Between 800 and 1200 workers would be needed to build a proposed “hyperscale” data centre near Invercargill during peak construction, the facility’s lead contractor has estimated.

“Several thousand” New Zealanders would be involved in the overall supply chain, Aecom technical director Colin Wyatt said.

Datagrid, a venture founded by technology entrepreneurs Remi Galasso and Malcolm Dick, unveiled plans for the $700 million investment, which would also include two new subsea internet cables, on Tuesday.

They aim to complete it by 2023, assuming they can persuade at least one United States technology giant to use it as a location from which to deliver cloud-based services to customers in Australia and New Zealand.

* Cold economics may stack up for the Datagrid venture

An artist's impression of what the Datagrid facility in North Makarewa would look like.

* Meridian gets in behind $700m plan for 'hyperscale' data centre near Invercargill

Meridian Energy's generation manager, Guy Waipara, has said it was “100 per cent” behind the scheme, which aims to capitalise on Southland’s cheap, renewable power and its cool climate.

Icelandic power company Landvirkjun has helped to build up a data centre industry in Iceland. Now New Zealand may follow suit.

The power company has agreed to provide 100 megawatts of electricity, or about an eighth of the peak output of the Manapōuri hydro scheme, to power the data centre.

Datagrid has selected US-owned Aecom, which employs about 700 staff in New Zealand, to design the facility.

Aecom’s previous and other current engineering projects have included consulting on Auckland’s City Rail Link, Britomart, Transmission Gulley and the New Zealand Defence Force headquarters in Wellington.

Although Galasso has estimated the data centre would only require 25 workers to operate it once built, Aecom’s estimates suggest it would provide a massive short-term boost to the South Island jobs market.

“On the design side alone there would be about 200 designers involved as part of the Aecom design team,” Wyatt said.

“Design is progressing very well, and we estimate the full design can be completed for early 2021 to match with Datagrid’s plan to have the facility operating by 2023,” he said.

Aecom was a global leader in the data centre design industry and its capability in the Asia-Pacific region was “second to none”, he said.

Southland District mayor Gary Tong and Queenstown Lakes mayor Jim Boult have expressed hope that the data centre and the upgrade to the lower South Island’s international internet connectivity would encourage more remote workers and technology companies to come to the region.

Boult said he was very keen to see the Datagrid project go ahead.

Datagrid could have a range of spinoffs, perhaps including the first fibre-optic internet link to Scott Base and McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

“‘Tech’ is probably where we see the biggest opportunity in the future,” he said.

“We have had a number of discussions particularly with US-based companies, which see the advantage in having an office in our part of the world to attract bright young people to work for them.

“What an opportunity it would be to say, ‘Come and work for us and you’ll spend two or three years in the best part of the world’ with all the things we have to offer for young people.”

Digital Economy Minister David Clark expressed interest in the project.

“In general we welcome proposals to increase the onshore provision of data centres and look forward to seeing how this proposal progresses,” he said.

Galasso has suggested an internet cable could be laid to Stewart Island, the Chathams and the New Zealand and US bases in Antarctica as an add-on to the project.

Antarctica New Zealand chief executive Sarah Williamson indicated that would be welcome.

“At the moment the internet connection at Scott Base is slow, rather like a dial-up connection,' she said.

“We would be enthusiastic about any project that could increase our internet speed and help our scientists get their data to and from Scott Base more easily.”