Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Dell Technologies, and Equinix have partnered to drive innovation and green technology practices in data centres in the region.
The collaboration, announced last week, aims to modernise digital infrastructure deployment, optimise hardware and software interface integration, and develop a comprehensive process for measuring, capturing, and auditing sustainability improvements in energy and carbon emission savings.
Data centres are energy-intensive facilities, with electricity accounting for more than 50 per cent of the operating expenditure in a typical data centre in Singapore, according to IMDA.
In line with its goal of being a hub for digital sustainability, Singapore had developed the Singapore Standard for Green DCs, one of the first guidelines in the world for maximising energy efficiency for data centers in tropical climates, earlier this year.
The agreement between the three parties now will promote the developing of green ICT practices and applications for sustainable digital technology.
“Earlier this year, Singapore launched one of the world’s first standards for optimising energy efficiency of data centres in tropical climates,” said said Dr Ong Chen Hui, assistant chief executive for the BizTech Group at IMDA.
Singapore is also the first country to join the Green Software foundation and European Green Digital Coalition to co-create best practices for green software and green digital solutions, she added.
Singapore is a prime data centre hub in Asia. In 2022, the city-state lifted its moratorium on new data centre projects that was in place since 2019, but new data centres will need to meet strict green requirements.
The island state has since awarded 80MW of new data centre capacity to four data centre operators, namely Equinix, GDS, Microsoft, and an AirTrunk-ByteDance consortium.
According to Research and Markets, the region is one of the most dynamic global data centre markets, and the Asia-Pacific green data centre market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.99 per cent between 2021 and 2027.
