intelligent POWER AND COOLING
Digital Realty makes gains on data centre sustainability in Singapore with new cooling tower initiative
Digital Realty , one of the largest global providers of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centre , colocation and interconnection solutions , has announced a new cooling tower initiative at its SIN10 data centre that aims to pioneer new levels of water conservation and efficiency in its data centres in Singapore .
This initiative is the first of its kind to be implemented in Singapore ’ s data centre industry . Employing a process known as DCI electrolysis , Digital Realty eliminated the use of chemicals to treat blow-down water discharge – water that is drained from cooling equipment to remove mineral build-up – from the cooling towers in its chiller systems . This allowed Digital Realty to triple the number of times the same pool of water can be used at its SIN10 cooling towers before it is discharged as wastewater , resulting in 1.24 million litres of water saved monthly .
Singapore ’ s business sector currently uses 55 % of the nation ’ s overall water supply . With this figure projected to increase to 70 % by 2060 , water sustainability is necessarily a firm focus for Singapore ' s data centre industry .
Since the implementation of DCI electrolysis in February 2023 , Digital Realty has reduced monthly blow-down water discharge at SIN10 by 90 %. Water Usage Efficiency ( WUE ) at SIN10 has improved by 15 %, besting the Singapore Public Utilities Board ’ s industry benchmark of 2.6 Cu . m / MWh for data centres by 30 %.
Beyond water conservation , SIN10 ’ s electricity requirements have come down as a result of minimal mineral build-up in the cooling towers , enabling the overall cooling system to run more effectively . The risk of polluting Singapore ’ s water systems is also minimised , with cleaner wastewater being discharged from the cooling towers .
Digital Realty seeks to lead the global data centre industry in sustainable environmental performance and focuses on a science-based , holistic approach to sustainability ; core to this strategy is improving resource efficiency in areas such as energy , water , waste and carbon .
This cooling tower project demonstrates Digital Realty ’ s continued focus on implementing practical , high-impact solutions to contribute to the overall conservation of this vital resource worldwide . Since 2020 , the company has reduced its global water intensity by 7 %. It joins Digital Realty ’ s other recently announced sustainability measures in APAC to contribute to the company ’ s global effort to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 68 % and Scope 3 emissions by 24 % by 2030 , the aggressive science-based carbon emissions target it set in 2020 with the Science-Based Target initiative ( SBTi ).
“ Digital Realty is committed to minimising the environmental impact of data centres . This cooling tower initiative showcases how water usage can become far more efficient and we hope this sets the standard for other data centres to follow ,” said Jon Curry , Vice President of Operations APAC , Digital Realty .
“ The project has yielded very promising results and we intend to extend this initiative to our other two data centres in Singapore ( SIN11 and SIN12 ) and do our part to optimise resource use in the industry . Sustainability will always be at the core of our business as we continue working toward building and maintaining data centres that maximise our customers ’ growth while minimising our environmental impact ." � www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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