A Southland community group is challenging the non-notified resource consent granted for a proposed hyperscale data centre at Makarewa, arguing the project should have been open to public scrutiny.
A packed public meeting in Invercargill last night, with standing room only, highlighted the level of community interest.
The proposed 49-hectare facility is expected to require 280 megawatts of electricity, making it New Zealand’s second-largest single electricity user after Tiwai Point. It also has consent to take up to seven litres of groundwater per second for cooling and to operate 84 emergency diesel generators.
Speaking with RCR’s Paul Brennan, Kelly Blomfield, spokesperson for Aotearoa Future Action and organiser of the Invercargill meeting, said concerns about electricity use, groundwater, noise, infrastructure and environmental effects were precisely why the application should have been publicly notified. The group is supporting legal action over the consenting process and has launched a petition calling for greater transparency around major industrial developments. More than 26,000 people have signed it.
Listen or watch RCR’s interview with Kelly Blomfield on the Southland data centre and Paul Brennan’s interview with Hakeem Anwar and learn more on RCR’s Rural Report.
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Image credit: Scott Rodgerson
