Santiago:
Patricio Hernandez lives on the northern outskirts of Chile’s capital Santiago, a hilly area below the Andes mountains, which he and other residents fear could be devastated by a major Amazon data centre complex.
“This hill is very important to the community; it is a green space, a place for recreation and for community,” he said, while strolling dirt paths near a flowing stream.
He and other residents tried to block the data centre, arguing the permit did not take into account the potential construction of a high-voltage power line that they said would be needed to feed the site.
They lost their case.
Environmental authorities in early April ruled the data centre could move ahead, saying that any plans for a power line should be assessed separately.
Amazon Web Services said it aims for the data centre to consume minimal energy and water and that its plan had met the environmental requirements.
Data centre construction has taken off worldwide as demand grows for the physical backbone for data storage, computer processing and artificial intelligence. So too has opposition over fears that the energy and water consumption required by data centres could drain resources, and that data centres could generate heat, cause noise pollution and rely on fossil fuels.
“Our approach has been to design this infrastructure with a strong emphasis on resource efficiency, incorporating technologies that minimise both energy and water consumption,” AWS Southern Cone technology chief Rafael Mattje said, speaking from New Zealand.
The branch of Jeff Bezos’ tech giant responsible for data centres last year announced a major plan to expand in Santiago.
In Chile overall, AWS has said it will invest more than $4 billion over the next 15 years to build, operate and maintain infrastructure in what is set to become its third major hub in Latin America after Brazil’s Sao Paulo and central Mexico.
A positive stance from Chile’s new President Jose Antonio Kast, who has pledged to reduce red tape, as well as high connectivity through fibre optic cables, could make Santiago increasingly popular for data centre developers.
“Chile is a magnet for this industry,” said Sebastian Diaz, a sustainable city specialist and former advisor to Chile’s national data centre plan. He also warned that Chile and the wider region must balance attracting investment with protecting people and the environment from negative consequences.
AWS expects its complex in Santiago, some 8 km (5 miles) north of the city centre, to last some 30 years. The centre will join dozens of AWS data centres around the Americas and over 900 worldwide.
For Hernandez, the construction of the data centre and any related infrastructure could dramatically change the daily lives of residents.
“We wake up every day to a green hill that brings us a little joy amid the grey of the city,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
