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No science here, we are the media!

For quite a few years now, I've been suggesting that the power currently feeding the aluminium smelter run by Rio Tinto in the South Island could be better used.

Instead of effectively giving away all that valuable electricity, surely we could use it for more productive, less polluting and more productive purposes.

This is especially true now that the government seems fixated on tying our energy future to an LNG terminal and the importation of natural gas from overseas.

The power currently feeding the Tiwai Point smelter could be far better used, for instance, as a source of energy for recharging New Zealand's growing fleet of EVs.

I've also suggested that another potential use would be to power datacentres located in the lower South Island.

It would appear that I am not alone in thinking this.

However, the article linked above seems to spend a lot of time focusing on why the datacentre option is a bad one. Why?

Surely we're better off using that electricity to power a much cleaner and greener operation such as a bunch of computer racks than a smelter that has proven to be a source of significant environmental damage.

The claim is made that a datacentre would have to rely on diesel generators during dry winters, when low lake levels may result in reduced output from the hydro-systems. Well guess what?

Although the smelter may close down some of its lines during such seasons, so as to reduce its power consumption, it still keeps on running a good number of them -- using as much, if not more, energy as a datacentre or two would, even at full capacity.

Then there's the second point raised in the list of "tests that this proposal needs to pass"...

Seriously? You're raising this as a reason against building datacentres?

Whoever wrote this obviously only went to school to eat their lunch.

Someone needs to tell these idiots that *all* electrical energy ultimately ends up as heat - no matter what it's used for. That's how physics works! Yes, even that smelter ultimately turns all the electricity going into it to heat (there's a clue in the word "smelter" BTW).

With this level of ignorance so clearly demonstrated, I find it hard to take the rest of the article seriously.

Clearly we live in a world where science comes a distant second to ideology and sensationalism, at least when it comes to our media.

I still say we're being absolutely stupid if we continue to give away electricity for a tiny fraction of what it's worth to a multinational that boasted profits of almost NZ$19 billion in 2025.

Let's build some datacentres or use that power to recharge our growing fleet of EVs so as to reduce, not increase, our reliance on fossil fuel imports. Let's not give away electricity at a rate that simply lines the pockets of a huge multinational that obviously doesn't need a handout from New Zealand taxpayers and electricity users.

Carpe Diem folks!

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