New Zealand telco Spark is set to build a data center on Auckland's North Shore that will heat a nearby surfing lagoon.
The company is teaming up with global surf park creator Aventuur on the project, which will see four out of the 43 hectare-masterplan developed into a data center.
Plans for the project first emerged in August 2023 when Aventuur proposed the development. The company is also developing a AU$100 million ($64.6m) surf park in Perth, Australia, that is set to open in 2025.
The data center will use a heat exchange system to send excess heat to a nearby surfing lagoon and will be partially powered by an on-site seven-hectare solar farm.
Spark and Aventuur have received the go-ahead for a data center development from the Environmental Protection Agency with a staged build of up to 40MW. The company's existing data center portfolio has a total capacity of 22.3MW.
While only a small amount of the necessary power will be provided by the solar park, in May 2024 Spark signed a 10-year PPA with Genesis Energy that will see the company purchasing 100 percent of the electricity from Genesis' solar farm in Lauriston Canterbury, accounting for 60 percent of Spark's electricity needs.
Michael Stribling, Spark's general manager of infrastructure, said: “Accelerating growth in our data center business is a core focus of Spark’s strategy, and with data usage increasing exponentially, particularly with the advent of generative AI, demand for capacity is growing rapidly.
"Spark is well positioned to capture its share of this growth, with our existing data center network, complementary digital infrastructure such as our networks and subsea cable assets, our relationships with cloud hyperscalers, and our ability to provide products and services over the top."
Aventuur co-founder, Richard Duff, added: “This is an exciting development for Auckland, and a great example of how innovation can create more sustainable solutions. We are thrilled to be working together with Spark to create a world-first symbiotic relationship between a surf park, data center, and solar farm.”
The application for the surf-data center-solar project was made by AW Holdings 2021, which is 68 percent owned by Aventuur and 25 percent owned by Auckland property developer Mark Francis.
The direct economic injection from construction and development of the project is expected to reach NZ$374 million (US$229 million), while the total impact on business activity in Auckland from the project would be NZ$630 million (US$383m) over six years.
The upcoming data center will be Spark's third in Auckland with the other two being its Takanini and CBD Mayoral Drive data centers, and the telco also has regional centers in Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Spark’s potential development pipeline totals 70MW.
The Takanini data center is Spark's largest, having recently completed a 10MW expansion of the facility, bringing its total capacity to 12.3MW and the company is planning to add another 15MW. The CBD data center has 2.9MW of IT capacity and is a strategic location due to the international submarine cable systems and national networks.
In the UK, Deep Green is using waste heat from data centers to host local swimming pools, starting with a leisure center in Exmouth, Devon.
Other similar projects include a bathhouse in Brooklyn, New York, which heats its spa pools with waste heat from Bitcoin mining rigs, and in 2022 Equinix said "multiple sustainability initiatives" are planned for its PA10 facility in Paris, including a heat recovery technology project designed to heat the local community swimming pool.
NorthC's Aalsmeer data center in the Netherlands ships heat to a local swimming pool.
