Singapore To Build Its Largest Low-Carbon Data Centre Park On Jurong Island
Singapore will build a low-carbon data centre park on Jurong Island with up to 700 megawatts (MW) of capacity and set up a regulatory sandbox to explore biomethane as a low-carbon fuel. This will be its largest such facility.
The move with other green efforts was announced by Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science & Technology Tan See Leng at the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) on Monday, October 27.
As per Dr Tan, the goal is not only to get through the energy transition but to emerge even stronger by capturing new growth opportunities and creating new goods.
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Nearly 20 hectares of land have been allocated on the 3,000 ha Jurong Island to develop the data centre park. The project will increase Singapore’s total data centre capacity, which is currently at more than 1.4 gigawatts (1,400 MW) across over 70 data centres.
The data centre park’s low-carbon is in line with Singapore’s 2024 Green Data Centre Roadmap, addressing the high carbon footprint of data centres. Singapore aims to hit net-zero emissions by 2050.
“Operators can leverage (Jurong Island’s) ecosystem, such as shared energy storage infrastructure and utilities, ample power capacity as well as emerging low-carbon energy sources,” the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and industrial landlord JTC said in a statement.
Earlier, a moratorium was imposed on new data centres from 2019 to 2022, following concerns regarding high energy and water consumption.
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Biomethane Sandbox
Singapore is looking to attain biomethane as a viable low-carbon fuel. Last month, EDB issued a closed call for proposals to demonstrate biomethane’s potential for power generation and industrial applications.
Biomethane is a renewable fuel that can be used interchangeably with natural gas in power plants. It is derived from biogas, which is in turn produced from organic matter such as agricultural waste.
Europe, China and the US account for 90 per cent of global biogas production.
