Australia’s CDC Considers New Data Center in New Zealand

Australian data center firm CDC has expressed interest in developing a potential data center in New Zealand in partnership with Contact Energy. The proposed site is in Stratford, Taranaki, on land near Contact Energy’s former Taranaki Combined Cycle power station. CDC said the site already has energy and connectivity infrastructure, including high-capacity terrestrial and subsea fiber links connecting to Auckland, where New Zealand’s international cables land.

The proposed facility would support critical and sovereign workloads across government, healthcare, research, banking, emergency services, and communications. Power would be supplied through a long-term agreement backed by Contact Energy’s renewable energy pipeline. CDC said the facility would also use a closed-loop cooling system, as seen at its other New Zealand data centers. The project remains at the “exploration stage” and will require further due diligence, approvals, and commercial agreements before development can proceed.

"CDC builds the infrastructure that governments, health systems, emergency services, researchers and financial institutions depend on. This is where sovereign data is held, where critical systems stay online, and where the most sensitive information stays in country," said CDC founder and chief executive Greg Boorer. "Stratford has the potential to bring together renewable generation, grid connection, fiber and a skilled technical workforce in a way very few places can. That combination is why we are looking at it seriously."