Amazon Web Services has three data centres in the Auckland region. Photo: 123rf
The power company Mercury has inked a long-term deal with tech giant Amazon for renewable energy for its Auckland data centres, due to launch next year.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) would purchase about half of the real-time output of the southern section of Mercury's Turitea wind farm near Palmerston North, for an agreed price for 15 years.
The Turitea wind farm was due for completion mid-year, with the southern section expected to produce 370 gigawatt hours of power in an average year.
Mercury said the financial terms of the deal were confidential.
The power generator and retailer said while it had a strong pipeline of renewable development, having a guaranteed consumer buying a significant amount of generation meant the company was well-positioned to continue developing renewable projects at speed.
"We're committed to delivering on our strong pipeline of new renewable generation and arrangements like this will help us get there faster," Mercury chief executive Vince Hawksworth said.
He said the agreement also helped Amazon with its decarbonisation goals.
"It's great to welcome AWS's data centres to New Zealand and we're happy to be powering their Kiwi operations in a way that supports renewable generation," Hawksworth said.
There were no regulatory hurdles ahead, and did not think a major power deal would affect prices for consumers, he said.
"In fact, it encourages new investors [and] I suspect many of the people who are considering building new wind farms, or solar or any other form of new generation would be looking for cornerstone customers of this nature."
Having cornerstone customers meant the wind farm project would avoid volatility and meant certainty of cashflow, he said.
"The spinoff of that for all New Zealanders is that we get a positive new industry in the data centre and an Amazon type of investor, and we get a base for more new renewables."