Singapore: Singapore authorities to begin taking applications for new data centers

Singapore has announced the end of its data center moratorium and is now accepting new applications for facilities, following Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Economic Development Board's (EDB) pilot scheme launch. The moratorium was originally put in place back in 2019 due to Singapore's overreliance on fossil fuels, and its growth as a data center hub.

Back in March, Dr. Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information, said that Singapore was committed to fulfilling its environmental obligations under the 2015 Paris agreement and said that greener facilities would enable it to do so. Further to this, he said: "IMDA and the Economic Development Board (EDB) will pilot a Call for Application to facilitate the calibrated growth of data centers that possess the best-in-class techniques, technologies, and practices for energy efficiency and decarbonization."

This more recent announcement echoed Puthucheary's statement in March and outlined that going ahead, Singapore will "need to manage the growth of DC capacity in a sustainable manner consistent with our climate change commitments." Moreover, new proposals must outline how they will use "state of the art technologies and best practices for sustainability." According to Singapore, authorities want to hear "innovative proposals" and have outlined that the proposals must all have a PUE less than 1.3, and a Platinum certification under Singapore's BCA-IMDA Green Mark for New Data Centre ("GM-NDC") criteria.