Singapore Advocates for Green Data Centers Amid Rising AI Demand and Strained Energy Resources

Jun 2024

Singapore is intensifying its focus on developing green data centers in response to the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI), which significantly increases energy consumption. To support its digital economy goals, the city-state has unveiled a green data center roadmap aimed at adding at least 300 megawatts of capacity in the short term. This initiative emphasizes the adoption of green energy, enhancing energy efficiency, using energy-efficient IT equipment, and offering incentives or grants to boost resource efficiency.

The burgeoning AI sector has spiked the demand for data centers, essential for processing and storing extensive datasets necessary for AI applications, leading to high energy usage. Despite leading tech companies like Microsoft and Google ramping up investments in clean energy, the importance of governmental support through incentives remains crucial. Data centers are the major indirect carbon emitters within Singapore’s information and communications sector, accounting for 82% of its ICT emissions and consuming 7% of the country’s total electricity.

Singapore, recognized as South East Asia’s second-largest and Asia-Pacific’s sixth-largest data center market, hosts over 70 facilities, including cloud, enterprise, and co-location data centers. These facilities are well-equipped to handle cloud platforms, digital services, and AI-intensive workloads. In light of global data center market reaching record highs in 2023, operators are increasingly exploring emerging and smaller markets worldwide to mitigate power constraints, as highlighted by Cushman & Wakefield.

(Source: CNBC)

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