A newly constructed Bitcoin mining facility in Lake Parime faces backlash from the locals of Central Otago.
Locals are concerned that the project’s primary aim would be cryptocurrency mining. According to Duncan Faulkner, chairman of the Guardians of Lake Dunstan, the locals think they will essentially be exporting local renewable energy without benefiting the surrounding community.
According to Contact Energy, residents may be certain that the company will not utilize the data center only for mining.
“Lake Parime will use the data center for a diverse range of high-performance computing applications. This may include blockchain and cryptocurrency, but also other decentralized computing activities such as machine learning, economic modeling, and data visualizations.”
Locals worried about the Bitcoin mining facility’s intentions
The controversial center is built at Clyde in Central Otago, and it’s rumored to be open by October. The company also believes that it is just one of the many to be built in New Zealand.
Duncan Falker said that the company would provide no benefits to the locals. He also added that other data centers in New Zealand were based on a traditional model, while this one is designed explicitly for Crypto mining.
The data center will be equipped with 368 servers and cooling equipment which will be held in 8 containers enclosed in a noise mitigation wall. Some locals have also raised concerns about the noise generated by the center.
Murray Dyer, general manager of Contact Energy subsidiary Simply Energy, said the data center was superior to older models that required a guaranteed energy supply 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“The crucial problem is that we can scale it up and down,” Dyer explained, “so if that energy is necessary for critical local companies and consumers, we can turn that data center down.”
Contact energy also said it had specific guidelines in the agreement regarding cryptocurrency, which they declined to reveal in detail.