When an eco-friendly data center is built in Singapore, it will be the first in the world. The country already has some of the most progressive green building programs, but they need help with the data center sector.
Data centers are needed to develop a thriving information and communication technology sector, but data centers themselves are notoriously power-hungry. This makes them a challenge for developers that wish to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
What is Eco-Friendly Data Center?
Eco-friendly data centers are high-efficiency, green data center facilities. They use various technologies to reduce energy consumption, water usage, and CO2 emissions to create a more sustainable business.
Most of the world’s electricity comes from non-renewable sources, including coal, oil, and natural gas. These power plants release greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide.
The global electricity consumption in data centers is approximately 40 billion kWh annually. Data centers are not just energy hogs; they also consume vast amounts of water. The average data center uses about 2 million gallons of water annually.
Green Data Center was created to solve these issues and reduce the negative impact that traditional data centers have on our environment. We can drastically reduce our carbon footprint by using green energy resources such as solar panels. A hybrid cooling system that utilizes hot and cold water means no need for excessive natural gas or diesel fuel. The same hybrid system also allows us to use our solar panels for processing instead of relying entirely on clean power from the grid.
Can we build an eco-friendly data center in Singapore?
Singapore is experiencing explosive growth in data center capacity requirements, and the demand for data center space is expected to grow exponentially over the next decade. Unfortunately, the country’s lack of land space and its tropical climate have made traditional data centers challenging to build in Singapore. This trend is mirrored in other countries where land space is at a premium and energy consumption from air conditioning systems is high due to hot climates.
Singapore has a population of 6.9 million people and is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It has a very high cost of living and an unemployment rate that has remained consistently high at 3.2%. In a country with scarce resources, energy consumption must be considered.
The strict regulations in Singapore make it difficult, but some companies are making progress. Some data centers use natural air conditioning, which reduces the need for heavy cooling systems. These solutions only work well in areas with consistent temperatures.
In addition, some data centers use seawater for cooling purposes—this would certainly be an eco-friendly solution along the lines of using renewable energy, but the high salt content could damage equipment and raise maintenance costs.
What is the solution?
The Singaporean government has made it clear that no new data centers can be built in the city-state. it is too hot for them to operate. While this is true, many approaches can be taken to make a data center more eco-friendly.
For starters, a data center should not use any energy produced by conventional power plants. That is to say, and they should be 100% renewable. There are many ways this can be done. One of the most popular ways is to use solar panels to produce the energy needed for building the center. Another way is using wind turbines to generate electricity for the building. Both of these solutions work on a large scale and with small generators that can be installed in personal homes.
Another solution is to use an entirely different power generation method altogether. An example would be geothermal energy to create electricity for your data center. This method will help regulate the temperature inside your facility and might even save you money in cooling costs.
Expansion to Indonesia
The Singapore government has been working on developing the country’s data center sector, especially regarding developing a new eco-friendly data center. This project aims to turn Singapore into a regional hub for e-commerce, system and data processing, and information technology.
Many data centers already exist on the island, but these are generally old or inefficient facilities. With newer facilities come better energy efficiency measures and technologies that can further reduce carbon emissions by reducing the energy needed to power them.
One way to overcome this problem is to expand data centers to Indonesia. Currently, the Indonesian government is promoting investment in green data centers to reduce carbon emissions. Datacenter owners and investors should utilize this opportunity in Singapore.
ICT infrastructure in Indonesia has supported large-scale digital technology needs. Cleaner energy sources are already available, such as in Jakarta with an LNG supply for electricity and in West Java with a Geothermal supply. It will be faster to reduce data center carbon emissions using these two natural energy sources.
Ideally, all industries should use renewable energy, but construction takes quite a long time. While developing renewable energy fields is underway in Singapore, you can use a multi-tenant green data center in Indonesia that has been certified by the Uptime Institute.
Conclusion
Energy is an essential and common concern in data centers. The data center can reduce energy consumption by making it more efficient in using electricity and natural resources. There are many ways to do this, but one such way is through eco-friendly data centers.
These data centers offer a more sustainable approach to managing the energy needs of a company’s information technology infrastructure. Using eco-friendly methods, these data centers reduce the costs associated with running a business through more efficient use of natural resources.
A green data center reduces its carbon footprint by implementing several practices. One of these practices includes utilizing renewable resources for power. Usually, data centers rely on fossil fuels for power generation, which leads to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
However, no emissions are released into the environment when solar panels are used to generate power. This makes a green data center environmentally friendly in that it does not contribute to climate change or pollution through the use of fossil fuels.