The ‘counterintuitive’ impact of datacentres on NZ’s energy grid

An artist's impression of the new Hobsonville datacentre for Canberra Data Centres. (Image: CDC)

Fri, 10 Jun 2022

New Zealand is facing a proliferation of huge datacentres, with the likes of Microsoft and Amazon committing to building facilities on our shores to service the local market and beyond.These facilities will have an impact on the energy grid and efforts to transition to renewable power – and it's very possible that impact could be a positive one. Datacentres are energy-hungryResearch by the International Energy Agency (IEA) says: “Global datacentre electricity use in 2020 was 200-to-250 Te...

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