Singapore was supposed to fail. The critical mass and key elements needed for a functional and prosperous nation weren’t there. Yet, Singapore not only survived but thrived. When digital transformation emerged as the new frontier, the city-state led the charge, quickly establishing itself as a regional data center hub.
However, as Singapore approaches its 60th year of independence, the reality of its constraints is biting again. In an era focused on sustainability and climate change, Singapore finds itself unable to compete in building data centers on the same scale as other parts of the world.
Sustainability is a challenge for all
With its early start, Singapore’s 1,400MW of data centers already makes it one of the densest data center hubs globally, whether by GDP, land area, or population. The problem lies in its small size and extensive urbanisation, leaving little space for solar panels and renewable energy.
With limited renewables, Singapore cannot allow unchecked construction of new data centers. Recognising this issue years ago, it imposed a 3-year moratorium on new data centers in 2019. This was followed by an initial allocation of 80MW – anaemic by current standards – for new data centers in 2023.
On May 30 this year, Singapore announced a new allocation of 300MW of capacity for data centers. As part of an expansive “Green Data Center Roadmap” published the same day, the new allocation aimed to capture strategic opportunities for Singapore and incentivise the industry to build more sustainable data centers.
Speaking at the launch of Google’s fourth data center in Singapore a week after the unveiling of the roadmap, Senior Minister of State Dr Janil Puthucheary elaborated on the government’s stance on sustainable data centers.
“This challenge [of sustainability] is not unique to Singapore; eventually, all of us, wherever we are in the world, are going to be faced with these constraints… Because of who we are, we are determined to turn these constraints into [opportunities] to innovate and capture value from the growth of sustainable data centers,” he said.
Working with the industry
Faced with the challenge of sustainability and energy efficiency in data centers, Singapore is adapting. But how does one build a sustainable data center? The Green Data Centre Roadmap provides some insights.
There are two key strategies: improving energy efficiency at the hardware and software level to maximise data center capacity, and accelerating the use of green energy by incentivising operators to explore ways to leverage it at scale.
The plan is to encourage an ecosystem approach, nudging data center operators, equipment vendors, end-users, and academia to collaborate, aligning mutual interests to achieve broader improvements.
The idea is to create an ecosystem focused on efficiency across the entire digital stack. By raising standards incrementally, the roadmap aims to spur innovation, lower costs, increase resource awareness among end-users, and reshape how new data centers are designed and built.
In a closed-door session at the ATxSummit conference following the roadmap’s announcement, Dr Puthucheary highlighted how Singapore transformed from one of the most water-stressed nations to one with significant water resilience.
The message here? Singapore has done it before and can do it again. As it becomes an expert in sustainable data centers, it hopes to eventually export this know-how.
What about the old data centers
But what about older data centers? With new sustainability criteria likely applicable only to new data centers, what happens to older ones in Singapore and other cities facing sustainability challenges?
During a panel discussion held as part of Tech Week Singapore in October, a director at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) acknowledged that upgrading operational data centers is not a trivial effort given customers’ expectations of uninterrupted service.
Scheduled technology refreshes could offer opportunities, he suggested. “How can we facilitate some of these moves? It could be incentives to offset some of the CAPEX itself. If there are operational concerns and considerations, how do we work with the industry to mitigate or manage some of these issues?”
“There are no clear answers or solutions at this time. We recognise the need to work together with the industry and data centers operators. We have set an ambition of making sure that every data center in Singapore [can hit] a PUE of at least 1.3 or better in 10 years.”
Can Singapore succeed and reinvent itself as a leader in sustainable data centers? Just as it had transformed its water scarcity into resilience, could Singapore revolutionise energy-intensive data centers into a model of sustainability – and effectively turn water into wine?
***
This piece was originally published in Issue 6 of w.media Cloud & Data Center Magazine
