MEL - Meridian Energy

[Zaphod]

The problem in my mind is that there is enormous potential with Meridian's assets. Companies like Google and Facebook are switching onto the fact that they need renewables to run their data centres.

If Meridian can secure a new contract with say Google building a data centre down there then the NZ tax payer will see less of the benefit going forward.

That's a great idea and would be fantastic for the country, however unless we offer some significant concessions I can't see any major international data centres being built in NZ. Our low population, geographic isolation (which increases latency) and high risk from natural disaster are significant barriers for this type of activity. Australia is a much more likely locality for such facilities to be built in, with Amazon Web Services data centre in Sydney already commissioned and with Microsoft building their new Azure data centre.

[iceman]

That's a great idea and would be fantastic for the country, however unless we offer some significant concessions I can't see any major international data centres being built in NZ. Our low population, geographic isolation (which increases latency) and high risk from natural disaster are significant barriers for this type of activity. Australia is a much more likely locality for such facilities to be built in, with Amazon Web Services data centre in Sydney already commissioned and with Microsoft building their new Azure data centre.

And don't forget, no fibre network

[vorno]

Of course you're free to move to the land of heat & death!

[Goldstein]

That's a great idea and would be fantastic for the country, however unless we offer some significant concessions I can't see any major international data centres being built in NZ. Our low population, geographic isolation (which increases latency) and high risk from natural disaster are significant barriers for this type of activity. Australia is a much more likely locality for such facilities to be built in, with Amazon Web Services data centre in Sydney already commissioned and with Microsoft building their new Azure data centre.

These guys think globally so spreading the risk is what they are about. Data centres can be seismically isolated (the racks can actually move in a couple of directions). Even the lack of local fibre network can be addressed. The real impediment is the single internet gateway to NZ.

Manapouri was bult with a high energy user in mind back in the Muldoon era, and the deregulated NZ market desperately needs a new one.

[Harvey Specter]

These guys think globally so spreading the risk is what they are about. Data centres can be seismically isolated (the racks can actually move in a couple of directions). Even the lack of local fibre network can be addressed. The real impediment is the single internet gateway to NZ.

Manapouri was bult with a high energy user in mind back in the Muldoon era, and the deregulated NZ market desperately needs a new one.

even a Google sized server farm would not replace Tiwai usage.

[Xerof]

RIO announced late last week that they have mothballed their Gove aluminium smelter.

[Goldstein]

even a Google sized server farm would not replace Tiwai usage.

It would replace one 'pot line' though.

Meridian contracted to supply 572 MW to Tiwai Pt.

A 100,000 server data centre may require 500W to power each server and say another 500W to cool to make the maths easy.

That's 100MW.

[Snow Leopard]

It would replace one 'pot line' though.

Meridian contracted to supply 572 MW to Tiwai Pt.

A 100,000 server data centre may require 500W to power each server and say another 500W to cool to make the maths easy.

That's 100MW.

A 100,000 server centre would be one of the larger centres in the world and with modern equipment and the NZ climate would actually consume about 30MW running at near capacity.

Heaven only knows how you would currently pipe the quantity of data (requests and responses) between NZ and the rest of the world that would justify such a size.

Best Wishes
Paper Tiger

[warthog]

A 100,000 server centre would be one of the larger centres in the world and with modern equipment and the NZ climate would actually consume about 30MW running at near capacity.

Heaven only knows how you would currently pipe the quantity of data (requests and responses) between NZ and the rest of the world that would justify such a size.

Best Wishes
Paper Tiger

Actually, you can't see what's over the horizon, PT. Of everyone here, you should be one of those who instinctively (feline genes) knows this is the case.

So quite a lot of what the hog thinks is going to happen in the future is processing. Huge number-chrunching facilities, which are given data to work on, but spit out only relatively small amounts of data.

Think Bitcoin. If PT had established a Bitcoin-mining operation next to Manapouri (with a contract for heavily-discounted power) in the early Bitcoin days, the coins would be ... virtually (see what the hog did there?) rolling in, and at quite a favourable cost.

Additionally, the connections between NZ and the rest of the world can only improve.

Especially with TEL/CNU starting to look like marginal players (CNU marginal in the sense that it loses much of the control over its destiny).

Interesting things are happening in the north of Sweden and Norway.

[Zaphod]

These guys think globally so spreading the risk is what they are about. Data centres can be seismically isolated (the racks can actually move in a couple of directions). Even the lack of local fibre network can be addressed. The real impediment is the single internet gateway to NZ.

Internationally, NZ is regarded as a higher-risk deployment environment for data centres. Nationally, Hamilton has the lowest risk profile, but the latency to major markets is still a major issue that won't be rectified through the provision of additional redundant international connectivity links.

Disc: Data centre design and build has been part of my professional duties for over a decade.