The reality behind Singapore's data centre strategy
Singapore faces severe constraints on land, power, and carbon. But it has a game plan.
Can Singapore stay in the data centre game? I was interviewed by CNA in a video released today, just in time for the upcoming DC-CFA2. Here's my take.
The CNA team and Kevin Kwang did a great job of simplifying the complexity of data centres and multiple viewpoints into a story of Singapore's data centre journey. Here's the context behind what I said.
Singapore needs more capacity
In the video, I was quoted explaining that Singapore does need more capacity to ensure that it doesn't miss out on opportunities in AI, not AI training specifically.
This was recorded some time ago, in April, and it does look like the process for the allocation of more data centre capacity via DC-CFA2 will finally kick off in November. It'll be a busy period for data centre players.
Severe constraints
The regional competition is extremely strong. Malaysia will exceed 3GW of data centres by 2029. Rapid data centre growth is happening in Thailand. And there's extraordinary growth in Australia and Japan.
In the meantime, Singapore, with 1,400MW of live data centre capacity, faces constraints on multiple fronts: land, power, and carbon footprint.
However, this is not stopping Singapore from pursuing an audacious goal - to be a hub for green data centres, as outlined in IMDA's Green Data Centre Roadmap.
A different game
Renewables lie at the heart of the challenge here, and I've previously argued that the odds and disparity in resources are staggering. It's easy to look at it and despair.
But Singapore has a game plan for it.
If it can transform itself into a green energy hub, it will have no problem doubling or even tripling its data centre capacity with ease.
Would it work? Singapore thinks so. And it has a precedent - if you consider how it became a petrochemical and energy hub even though it isn't an oil producer.
And we saw a glimpse of this masterplan earlier this week, when JTC revealed various energy initiatives and a low-carbon data centre park in Jurong Island.
I won't go further into this today, but you can read about some of the plans for Jurong Island here. Separately, I also wrote an article on Substack titled "Singapore's data centre restraint is actually a power play" here.
What are your thoughts?
By the way, Equinix's Yee May Leong, DC Byte's James Murphy, and Prof PS Lee are also featured. Watch the CNA video on YouTube here.
