The New Zealand Overseas Investment Office has approved a new 6Ha land acquisition by Datagrid in #Makarewa #Invercargill allowing its Data center park project to reach a total area of 49Ha (121 acres). This extension is essential to enable Datagrid’s vision for a #sustainable data center park to include:
- A significant Artificial Intelligence data center zone supported by up to 1 Gigawatt of renewable energy
- The construction of a new power substation (GXP) directly connected to 2 diverse 220kv high-voltage power lines from the #Manapouri power station, NZs largest hydro dam (800MW)
- A cable landing station for the #TeWaipounamu international subsea cable connecting #Invercargill to #Sydney and #Melbourne
Perrine DHALLUIN, CEO at Datagrid says: “this is an important milestone for the Datagrid project and we are extremely pleased the OiO has approved our application. Our next step is to obtain resource consent through our Fast Track consenting application currently being considered. This will enable us to get going as soon as possible with construction. The #AI data center market is booming, and we believe #Southland New Zealand is the best location in the Asia Pacific region to develop an #AITraining cluster. Extensive land, cool climate, green power, safe environment and diverse connectivity are key success factors in this market. Our objective is to secure 240MW in phase 1 and grow over time up to 1GW, which is why we needed to extend our land from 43Ha to 49Ha. This is now done.”