new subsea cables<\/a> would give Invercargill some of the country\u2019s fastest internet, positioning it as a new digital gateway.<\/p>\nSouthland Business Chamber chief executive Sheree Carey said locals had mixed feelings about the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are significant opportunities and there are also genuine concerns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the concern in the community comes from a knowledge gap. When people see quick numbers around power, around water, generators or data infrastructure, it\u2019s completely reasonable that they want the straight answers in plain English.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opponents of the project have sought a review of Datagrid\u2019s resource consents, querying the project\u2019s environmental monitoring conditions and how much low-frequency noise the factory would produce.<\/p>\n
Southland District Council is assessing whether to launch a review and expects to make a decision by September 5.<\/p>\n
Some locals have also criticised the non-notified resource consent process, claiming it left them without a say on the factory.<\/p>\n
Galasso said it had been difficult to talk to locals about a project that \u201cwasn\u2019t fully designed\u201d but from now on there would be monthly public meetings at Makarewa Country Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s welcome and we will have full transparency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Galasso said he had chosen to work with the community, rather than through the Government\u2019s Fast-track process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey proposed to me the Fast-track process and said we can give you the resource consent in six months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018thank you, but no thank you. I will talk to the councils and we\u2019ll do the classic resource consent process.\u2019 We have to do it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Datagrid environmental manager Fiona Smith said the company was in constant contact with people living near the factory, partly to dispel misinformation circulating about the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last two years I\u2019ve come to know those neighbours very well. Some of them talk to me three or four times a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Datagrid head of technology Benjamin Black said the original plan presented in March had been scaled back and the project\u2019s consented conditions were a worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process of consenting means that initially we have to come up with what\u2019s called the maximum set of effects, assuming the worst case for everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how you end up with some pretty terrifying numbers but as we\u2019ve focused in on a specific application with a specific tenant, it\u2019s allowed us to really narrow down the set of effects.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told business leaders Datagrid expected to use less than 66 million litres per year, or 70% less than its consented 220 million litres per year.<\/p>\n
The factory would need fewer than 34 generators instead of the 84 permitted, he said.<\/p>\n
Some locals had earlier asked if the factory would cause power price hikes.<\/p>\n
Black said a big battery storage system would help stabilise Southland\u2019s electricity supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to put the battery system into what\u2019s called grid-following mode to provide voltage support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has nothing to do with us. This is entirely around making the grid more stable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work to build a new access road and excavate topsoil began at the Makarewa site on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\nSouthlanders who remain uneasy about the AI factory were due to hold another meeting on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is going to be the most sustainable data centre in the whole Asia Pacific,\u201d he said. \u201cAny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,1975,179529,13741,114570,22504,7494,111,139,69,51925,15488,145,22505,6306,376],"class_list":["post-573447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-at","tag-datagrid","tag-factory","tag-generator","tag-katie","tag-less","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pledges","tag-southland","tag-technology","tag-todd","tag-use","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}