The scale calculation
30,000,000 people divided by 10,000 people per node gives 3,000 single-rack nodes. Carrying forward the earlier A$6 million all-in site allowance gives A$18 billion for the initial national installation scenario. The source allowance includes integration and contingency; it is a planning basis, not a current supplier quote or a claim that every site costs the same. [D09]
Price the site, not only the processors
Break capital into compute and storage, networking, electrical works and UPS, cooling and heat recovery, secure space and site works, freight, installation labour, commissioning, capture and training, project development and contingency. An existing plant room and a new wellbeing hub can have very different site costs. Brad’s archetypes should make that difference visible.
Define the income and the payer
Potential income includes installation and upgrade contracts, compute services, application and support services, maintenance and training. The host may receive a heat saving, pay for metered useful heat, or agree another commercial arrangement. Record which entity receives each benefit: a saving to a pool operator is not automatically cash available to repay the rack-owning co-operative.
Cost the continuing service
The operating model includes electricity and network charges, connectivity, software and support, staff and monitoring, maintenance, insurance, premises arrangements, cooling auxiliaries, financial commitments and reserves. Separate demand forecasts from contracts. Identify workloads that can be scheduled flexibly and services that require a different level of continuity.
Maintain two connected forecasts
The deployment forecast follows site progression, crew capacity, supplier commitments, installation margin and recycled capital. The fleet forecast follows customer demand, service income, operating expenditure, co-operative acquisitions, repayments, maintenance and technology renewal. Neither forecast can be understood fully without the other.
Test changes before committing
Compare lower customer uptake, delayed installations, energy-cost changes, a different hardware generation, reduced heat use, slower co-operative buyouts and equipment downtime. Make the assumptions editable and show their consequences. No investor rate, utilisation level, heat price, repayment term or refresh interval is fixed by this introductory plan; those are inputs for the component work.
Explore the initial capital scenario
A population-and-cost illustration, not a deployment schedule or investment forecast. Inputs remain in this page only.
Nodes round upwards. Initial capital excludes subsequent operations, financing and refresh cycles.