SINGAPORE: The completion of Google’s fourth data centre in Singapore brings its total investment in the country to US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion).
This marks a substantial increase from the US$850 million (S$1.1 billion) invested in the third data centre launched in 2022, The Straits Times reports.
The announcement was made on June 3 at Google’s Singapore office at Mapletree Business City II in Pasir Panjang. Specific details about the new facility weren’t disclosed. Currently, Google’s existing data centres are located in Jurong West.
Singapore is a strategic hub for Google’s data centre network. It is one of 11 countries where the company operates such facilities. Singapore’s first two data centres were launched in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
This recent expansion comes just days after Google announced a US$2 billion investment to build its first data centre in neighbouring Malaysia.
The growing demand for computing power, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems, necessitates more data centres.
However, as Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information, Dr Janil Puthucheary, acknowledges, this growth needs to be balanced with environmental sustainability.
Dr Janil, who attended the event, emphasised, “With our energy and carbon constraints, this growth of capacity can only be realised if we can make the data centres more sustainable.”
This aligns with Singapore’s recently launched Green Data Centre Roadmap, which aims to add 300MW of data centre capacity and an additional 200MW to prioritise operators with green energy options.
Considering Singapore’s existing data centre network, which has over 70 facilities and 1.4 gigawatts of capacity, addressing sustainability is crucial.
These data centres currently account for a significant portion of the country’s emissions, contributing to 82% of the information and communications sector’s emissions and 7% of its total electricity consumption.
According to a Google statement, its Singapore data centres are built with sustainability features to ensure efficient resource management.
“The average temperature in our data centres is about 27 deg C. It can in fact go higher, but we keep it at that level for the comfort of the humans working in there,” said Mr Ken Siah, the Asia-Pacific head of public affairs for Google data centres.
Google’s data centres prioritise sustainability to combat Singapore’s hot climate and minimise environmental impact with:
- Recycled water cooling: Google utilises recycled water for cooling, a method that reduces carbon emissions by 10% compared to traditional air cooling
- Water conservation: The recycled water is reused multiple times, significantly reducing overall water consumption by the data centres
- Light-based networking: Google uses optical circuit switches. These switches use tiny mirrors to transmit data with light instead of electricity, leading to a 40% reduction in energy consumption compared to traditional electrical networking
According to Mr Siah, “Our experience is that by working together with the ecosystem, using human ingenuity and technological innovation, data centres can grow sustainably to meet the needs of AI, even here at the equator.” /TISG
Read also: Singapore to allocate up to 35% more power for data centre expansion
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