Equinix, National University of Singapore Explore Sustainability, Energy Solutions for Data Centres

Equinix, Inc., the world’s digital infrastructure company^®, and the Centre for Energy Research & Technology (CERT) under the National University of Singapore’s College of Design and Engineering (NUS CDE) have announced its plan to set up a Co-Innovation Facility (CIF) in Singapore to accelerate the testing and development of innovative solutions focused on low-carbon energy, high-efficiency cooling, circularity, and energy efficiency optimisation for data centres. Accelerating these innovations will shape the future of digital infrastructure and services in Singapore and other tropical locations, as well as address sustainability goals.

Singapore’s digital economy has grown at a compound annual growth rate of close to 13% since 2017, contributing 17.3% to its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022. Furthermore, according to the recent 2024 National Budget, Singapore is strengthening its position as a global business and innovation hub by investing more than USD $740 million into Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the next five years. As digital demands accelerate, data centres have become the foundation of today’s digital economy. To support digital growth more sustainably, data centres need to explore new ways to reduce energy consumption and implement energy efficiency solutions to cope with increased workloads and processing requirements.

To be built inside Equinix’s upcoming SG6 International Business Exchange^TM (IBX^®) data centre, the CIF aligns with Equinix’s Data Center of the Future Initiative toward building cleaner, more efficient data centres around the world. This CIF will be an open research hub for leading global technology innovators, data center technology partners, academia, and customers to co-develop and trial core and edge technologies that deliver reliability, energy efficiency, and cost efficiency.

Equinix to Invest in the Co-Innovation Facility

With an initial investment of USD $4 million from Equinix, the CIF will serve as an incubator to trial innovations such as enabling the integration of clean and renewable energy sources and alternative power generation, with the aim of assessing their ability to operate at scale. AI and Machine Learning (ML) will also be utilised by the facility along with other advancements, such as liquid cooling, which is becoming more vital as AI makes data processing more compute intensive. The facility will also trial Cognitive Digital Twin (CDT) capabilities of predictive maintenance and upgrades to address challenges faced by current data centre models.

Yee May Leong, Managing Director, Singapore, at Equinix, said: “The effects of climate change are being felt around the world, and it is becoming increasingly urgent to embed best practices in every aspect of our operations. By replicating our successful Co-Innovation Facility from Ashburn and expanding our collaborative efforts in the Asia-Pacific region, we are reaching a significant milestone in advancing our “Future First” sustainability agenda. It will accelerate the development of cutting-edge technologies and apply real-world solutions to help reduce the carbon footprint of the growing number of data centres worldwide.”

Professor Lee Poh Seng, Director, Centre for Energy Research & Technology, at NUS College of Design and Engineering, said, “The establishment of the Co-Innovation Facility highlights our commitment to forging impactful industry partnerships that translate groundbreaking research into practical applications. Collaborating with Equinix enables us to leverage our expertise in energy innovation and sustainability to address critical challenges faced by data centres in tropical climates. Together, we aim to redefine benchmarks for operational efficiency and sustainability in digital infrastructure, aligning with Singapore’s ambitions for sustainable development and technological leadership. This partnership is a powerful step forward in shaping a future where cutting-edge innovation meets environmental responsibility.”

Key Highlights

To be opened in Q1 2027, the CIF will trial sustainable innovations for data centers, such as:

• Alternative power solutions. Alternative power generation solutions such as fuel cells and battery storage, can provide low-carbon power solutions for data centres, serving as bi-directional grid interfaces and on-site prime and/or backup solutions.

• Direct current power distribution system. An electrical power distribution architecture known as medium voltage AC to low-voltage DC (MVAC-LVDC) facilitates the seamless integration of battery energy storage system (BESS), solar photovoltaics (PV) and other renewable energy sources (RES) coupled to the data centre power distribution network, with the potential to enhance grid-side power quality, efficiency, and power density for data centres.

• Liquid cooling. This advanced cooling method reduces energy consumption and noise while optimising space. It also increases the potential for waste heat reuse, supporting circular data centre models.

• Digital twin capabilities. Data-driven model and machine learning will be utilised to enable predictive maintenance and upgrades.

Additionally, Equinix and NUS have long supported Singapore’s sustainability agenda and implemented various initiatives to support the growth of sustainable development in the country, including scholarship opportunities in nature-based climate solutions for students at NUS.

In 2022, Equinix together with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and CERT, both under NUS CDE, collaborated to explore hydrogen-based green fuel technologies for mission-critical data center infrastructure. The study compared PEM fuel cells and fuel-flexible linear generators, highlighting their efficiency and potential as backup power solutions, particularly in tropical climates. The results were released in 2023.

Equinix operates 268 data centres across 73 metros, providing digital infrastructure for more than 10,000 of the world’s leading businesses. Since 2021, Equinix has been driving toward an approved near-term science-based target (SBT) for emissions reduction by 2030.