Plans for a data centre near Clyde raise crypto-mining concerns

Critics of a planned data centre for Clyde in Central Otago are raising concerns about just what it'll be used for, saying it'll be of no benefit to the region - or even the country. Contact Energy wants to build the datacentre for UK-based company Lake Parime just under the Clyde Dam, along with a new substation - to be built and run by Aurora Energy - to power it. The datacentre would be made up of eight containers, each holding 368 servers. Lake Parime says it works with renewable energy operators to provide sustainable computing infrastructure for things like machine learning, modelling, data visualisations, block chain and cryptocurrency mining. It's that last one that have critics concerned, and question if this is the best option for New Zealand's renewable energy resources. Contact Energy says a key condition of the agreement with Lake Parime was that it would offer a diverse range of data services. Kathryn speaks with Duncan Faulkner, chairman of Guardians of Lake Dunstan, Murray Dyer, general manager for Simply Energy, a subsidiary of Contact Energy and Sath Ganesarajah, founder and CEO of Lake Parime.