A NEW report on the potential growth of data centres in New Zealand says a large-scale construction program could create about 5000 jobs, with a significant proportion in electrical and mechanical trades.
The report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said New Zealand could capture up to $120 billion in economic activity from new data centres over the next decade if it moved quickly.
That is up from the group’s earlier forecast of $70 billion in potential economic gains.
The new forecast is based on a larger future data centre build-out of 1 gigawatt (GW).
BCG said a construction program of that scale could drive economic activity across New Zealand’s supply chain, creating about 3500 jobs during the peak construction period.
It said about 60 per cent of those roles would be in electrical and mechanical trades, while civil trades would account for a further 21 per cent.
The report said that once operational, data centres typically sustain about one role for every megawatt of capacity, resulting in about 1000 ongoing jobs.
BCG New Zealand managing director and partner Kelly Newton, said growing global demand for data centres opened up opportunities for New Zealand.
“Between New Zealand’s natural advantages, renewables development, stable political environment, and growing investor interest, it has the opportunity to move quickly to capture its slice of the global data centre pie, worth approximately $120 billion in economic activity,” Newton said.
Earlier this month, Contact Energy announced it was exploring plans with CDC Data Centres for a potential large-scale 250-megawatt data centre at Stratford in Taranaki.
Meanwhile, in Southland, Datagrid is preparing to build a large-scale data centre at Makarewa, north of Invercargill.
Data Centre development is not without controversy however.
Large builds have faced local opposition in the United States and the Greens have recently called for a one-year moratorium on data centre builds in New Zealand. The Greens have concerns about the potential benefits of data centres and what impact they may have on water and electricity supply.
