Opponents of Southland's $3.5 billion AI data centre want Datagrid to show up and face them.
Hundreds packed into the Invercargill Workingmen's Club on Wednesday night, concerned about the 78,000 square metre hyperscale facility planned for Makarewa. So many turned up that some were left standing in the hallway.
Datagrid did not attend.
Organiser Kelly Blomfield, from the Southland Sustainable Resource Coalition, was taken aback by the size of the crowd. "As we come across more information, we're going to have more evenings like this and opportunities for people to have their say," she said.
The room had questions about power supplies, noise pollution and whether the wider community had been properly consulted before consent was granted. Blomfield said she had tried to get the company there. "We've reached out in good faith and it's a shame but they might come to the next one."
Datagrid, when approached by 1News, responded with a statement rather than an interview. On water use, the company said: "There will be no groundwater draw whatsoever. Southland's naturally crisp 9-10°C average annual temperature allows the facility to rely entirely on free cooling from ambient outside air." On power, it said the project would not burden the grid but instead generate new renewable energy. "This influx of clean energy increases total national supply, supporting lower long-term wholesale power costs for everyday Kiwis."
Not everyone is buying that. Simplicity managing director Sam Stubbs told 1News: "What we have seen with data centres now, and there's a lot of evidence, is that they employ very few people, they pay very low taxes, they're masters at paying the lowest possible taxes but they consume a huge amount of power and the last thing New Zealanders need right now is higher power bills."
The centre is expected to open in 2028. Datagrid says construction will create 1200 jobs, but once fully operational only 80 staff will be needed. That gap is not small.
Also on Wednesday, energy company Mercury announced it had bought a 12% stake in Datagrid for $53 million. The two companies had already signed a 140MW long-term power purchase agreement in March.
Southland Mayor Rob Scott said the project had followed the Resource Management Act process, but acknowledged the pace of change was outrunning the rules. "The technology at the moment with AI and everything else is moving in a pace that the world can't actually keep up with. And I think we're getting a consequence of that now. So we're all trying to work within the rules and the regulations that we've got, and sometimes, they need to be challenged."
Alongside the data centre, Datagrid is also developing a high-fibre undersea cable linking Invercargill with Australia, called the Tasman Ring Network.