Penny Simmonds: Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology on the push to bring more data centres to New Zealand

The Technology Minister says the global demand for more data centres is great, as the Government pushes to bring more here. 

Invest New Zealand is looking to attract up to $30 billion in offshore investment in the centres over five years.  

It says it could generate $70 billion in broader economic activity and employ up to 3,500 people.  

Technology Minister Penny Simmonds told Ryan Bridge the digital economy needs infrastructure – anyone who’s streamed a movie or banked online is part of this digital economy. 

She’s offering assurances that we have enough energy to power the data centres, saying that we already have 56 facilities, which use only 0.6% of our total power. 

Simmonds told Bridge we're extending our renewable generation, which will help meet future demand. 

The Minister says nine energy projects are going through fast track, and if we weren't expanding generation, then she'd be worried. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Invest New Zealand. This is a Crown agency. They want
foreign companies to pump thirty billion dollars investment into AI
data centers over five years in New Zealand. We've got
one in Westgate that's owned by a subsidiary an Ireland
to cost a billion dollars. But will they steal our
power at peak times? Do we have the water to
cool them? And what about the jobs? Do they actually
create them? Penny Simmons, Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology

(00:23):
with me this morning. Minister, Good morning, Good morning Ryan.
I mentioned AI data centers once on the show and
the text machine goes with people saying we need a
referendum on these things. I hate them. They're going to
steal our power. We don't have the power. They actually
seem quite controversial.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
They are, and yet we've got fifty six of them
already and they are using zero point six percent of
our power. So and anyone that's using the digital economy,
anyone who's jumped on a video conference or streamed a
movie or done some bank online, is part of the
digital economy that needs the infrastructure of data centers. So

(01:07):
we have them now and we're going to need more
in the future, and AI is just accelerating that.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So fifty six data centers less than a percent of
our power. If we get thirty billion in investment as
investment in z wants, how many data centers does that equal?
How much of our power?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Is that equal? Well?

Speaker 3 (01:26):
The thing is though, at the same time, we're extending
the amount of renewable energy that we're producing. So you've
heard the Prime Minister talking about the fact that we've
got nine renewable energy projects going through FastTrack. Six of
them have already been approved, three with expert panels now.

(01:46):
So yes, if we weren't doing that work could be worried.
But we've got that happening in parallel that we're getting
more electricity, and so we want that electricity available so
that it put downward pressure on prices, but also so
that allows more industries to come here, like data centers,

(02:07):
and they create then that growth in our economy and
they create jobs.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
All right, Penny Simons, Science Minister good Tavy on the programmer.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
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