SINGAPORE aims to provide at least 300 megawatts (MW) of additional capacity for data centres in the near term – with another 200 MW or more that could be added for operators who tap green energy.
This is part of the Green Data Centre Roadmap, a new effort to develop sustainable data centres that the city-state launched on Thursday (May 30).
Singapore is a regional data centre hub, with 1.4 gigawatts of capacity and over 70 data centres. But it has to balance the growth of this energy-guzzling sector against its climate goals, having pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Data centres currently account for 82 per cent of the country’s information and communications sector emissions, and 7 per cent of Singapore’s total electricity consumption, said Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information.
“As the demand for digital and AI (artificial intelligence) services compute continues to rise, the need for our data centre capacity will grow,” said Dr Janil, who was speaking at the Asia Tech x Singapore conference on Thursday.
“At the same time, we’ll need to ensure that Singapore remains on track for peak CO2 emissions by 2030, and net zero by 2050. These are our international climate commitments, and we have every intention of standing by (them),” he added.
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In allocating the new data centre capacity, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will “prioritise both sustainability and economic value”, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, in a separate speech at the conference.
Green energy sources that data centres could explore include bioenergy, vertical building integrated photovoltaics, fuel cells with carbon capture, and low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia. The government is welcoming industry proposals to realise these energy pathways, said Dr Janil.
Data centre operators are also encouraged to tap energy efficiency solutions such as liquid cooling for high-density racks and applying green software techniques.
More support will also be provided for data centres to adopt green hardware. Singapore’s Energy Efficiency Grant, which helps enterprises switch to energy-efficient IT equipment, will be expanded to include the data centre sector.
Separately, the IMDA will develop new benchmarks for data centres in consultation with the industry. By the end of this year, it will refresh the “Green Mark” certification scheme, which is awarded to sustainable data centres, to raise energy-efficiency standards.
It will also introduce standards for IT equipment energy efficiency and liquid cooling by 2025, to promote adoption of these technologies in Singapore.
Water consumption is another key concern as data centres’ rack densities increase, said Dr Janil. IMDA will work with national water agency PUB to help data centres improve their water efficiency.
Singapore’s latest efforts to green data centres follow its launch of the Tropical Data Centre standard last year, which guides data centres on raising their operating temperatures for energy efficiency in tropical climates.
