Data Igloo Proposes Cold Storage Data Center At Former Karioi Pulp Mill

Data Igloo proposes to develop a cold data storage campus at the former Winstone Pulp International mill at Karioi on New Zealand's North Island. Ruapehu District Council said on 28 October it had received the campus proposal alongside a separate wood pellet plant for the same site near Ohakune. Both developments Featured: Editorial photograph of the former mill site in Ruapehu selected for cold storage development.remain at the planning stage, and no capacity figure has been published for the data centre.

Data Igloo is a New Zealand cold data storage company registered in January 2025. The council's release describes the proposed campus as providing "secure, energy-efficient storage, compute colocation and sovereign data storage and processing". Data Igloo says the design separates low-energy storage from intensive processing and uses the region's cool climate to reduce cooling and energy needs. DCD reported that little detail about the campus technology has been published.

Te Ara Hiko proposes the wood pellet plant, which the council says would produce 180,000 tonnes of fuel a year for domestic and export customers. The site sits next to Transpower's Tangiwai substation, where two 220/11 kV transformers with a combined nominal capacity of 120 MVA have supplied no load since the mill closed, according to Transpower's 2025 transmission planning report. The NZ AI Infrastructure Index reports the plant would consume about 500,000 tonnes of pine logs and biomass residues a year.

RNZ reports the two projects together as a NZ$300 million development and quotes Ruapehu mayor Weston Kirton putting the jobs at 60 to 100.

"Bringing productive activity back to Karioi is welcome news that could help rebuild confidence, create much-needed jobs and generate work for local suppliers, contractors and other businesses," said Weston Kirton, Mayor of Ruapehu District.

Site owner Winstone Pulp International closed the Karioi and Tangiwai mills in 2024 after 45 years of operation, citing unsustainable wholesale electricity prices, and RNZ reported the closures displaced about 230 jobs. Local iwi Ngāti Rangi opposed Te Ara Hiko's discharge consent in its current form over proposed wastewater condensate discharges into the Whangaehu River, and Kirton said he was confident Te Ara Hiko and Ngāti Rangi could work together to address those concerns.

Winstone Pulp's reply to the Horizons Regional Council hearing panel is due on 9 November, and the panel chair expects a decision before Christmas.

Baxtel counts 22 data center facilities in New Zealand, totaling 161MW. Canberra Data Centres operates three sites in the country and Datacom four, and the largest is CDC's Hobsonville 1 at 22MW.

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