4-6-2024 (SINGAPORE) Tech titan Google has announced a staggering $5 billion (S$6.7 billion) investment in infrastructure within the Lion City. This monumental financial commitment coincides with the completion of the company’s fourth data centre in Singapore, a testament to the nation’s burgeoning status as a digital hub.
The investment figure marks a substantial increase from the $850 million (S$1.1 billion) poured into the Republic’s third data centre, which commenced operations in 2022. This latest announcement was made on June 3 during an event held at Google’s office in the Mapletree Business City II complex, situated in the Pasir Panjang district.
According to the tech behemoth, more than 500 individuals are now employed at its data centres in Singapore, facilities that power the company’s widely used digital services, including its renowned search engine and the indispensable Google Maps.
While the specifications of the newly unveiled facility were not disclosed, Singapore’s position as one of 11 countries where Google operates data centres underscores the nation’s strategic importance in the global digital landscape. The company’s first data centre in the city-state was established in 2014, followed by a second one in 2015, both located in the Jurong West region.
Coinciding with this development, Google recently revealed plans to invest $2 billion in neighbouring Malaysia, where the company intends to establish its maiden data centre in that country.
Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information, Janil Puthucheary, acknowledged the growing demand for data centres to support the computing power required to meet technological needs, such as the burgeoning adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems. However, he emphasized the need for sustainability, stating, “But with our energy and carbon constraints, this growth of capacity can only be realised if we can make the data centres more sustainable.”
Dr. Janil, who attended the June 3 event, affirmed the nation’s commitment to fostering a sustainable data centre sector, citing the recent launch of Singapore’s Green Data Centre Roadmap on May 30.
Unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat at the Asia Tech x Singapore event, the groundbreaking roadmap outlines plans to add 300MW of data centre capacity in the coming years, with an additional 200MW allocated exclusively to operators employing green energy options.
The green standards outlined in the roadmap encompass measures to enhance energy efficiency by upgrading equipment and reducing the energy required for air-conditioning by safely raising the operating temperature to 26 degrees Celsius.
Singapore currently boasts more than 70 data centres, collectively accounting for 1.4 gigawatts of capacity. These facilities contribute to 82 percent of the city-state’s information and communications sector emissions and 7 percent of its total electricity consumption.
In a statement, Google affirmed that its data centres are equipped with sustainable features designed to ensure efficient resource management, a crucial consideration in Singapore’s tropical climate, where cooling measures must be carefully regulated to prevent energy waste and erosion of data centre efficiency.
Ken Siah, the Asia-Pacific head of public affairs for Google data centres, highlighted the company’s innovations in facility design and hardware, enabling the creation of supercomputers capable of operating at higher temperatures, thereby reducing the energy required for cooling. “The average temperature in our data centres is about 27 degrees Celsius. It can, in fact, go higher, but we keep it at that level for the comfort of the humans working in there,” Siah remarked during the event.
Siah also disclosed that Google’s data centres in Singapore utilize recycled water for cooling purposes, a measure that reduces carbon emissions by 10 percent compared to air cooling. Additionally, the recycled water is reused multiple times, minimizing the centres’ water intake.
Moreover, Google’s data centres employ light rather than electricity for networking. This innovative method utilizes optical circuit switches, which employ tiny rotatable mirrors to beam data from input ports to output ports. According to Siah, this data transmission technique enables Google to cut its energy consumption by up to 40 percent compared to traditional electrical networking.
“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,” Siah concluded, underscoring Google’s commitment to environmentally responsible practices in the face of Singapore’s tropical climate.
