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Liquid cooling is sometimes touted as the be-all and end-all of data centres. But why are data centre operators so slow to adopt it? Here's why. I've written quite a bit about liquid cooling. Every rose has its thorns, however. Let's talk about the challenges around liquid cooling today. 𝟭/ 𝗡𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 First, it's worth pointing out the reasons liquid cooling adoption is so slow. There are several: it's costlier, takes more work, and the benefits aren't always needed. This changed with the high-powered AI deployments we see today. Indeed, the heat produced by GPU servers is prodigious - and could go up to an astonishing 600kW of power per rack by 2027. Read: 🔸Why are we building such massive AI data centres? - https://lnkd.in/gWP2hNTv 🔸Here's how liquid cooling keeps AI servers cool - https://lnkd.in/gEqMnE_6 Away from AI workloads, a growing focus on sustainability means that more are turning to liquid cooling to cool traditional servers due to its higher efficiency. 𝟮/ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 So why aren't more data centre operators jumping into liquid cooling? Some reasons: - Non-zero chance of leaks. - Care needed to avoid contamination*. - Risk of fouling microchannels in cooling blocks. - Servicing such systems trickier than air-cooled ones. Contamination deserves a mention. Within data centres, installation or retrofitting work can result in metal shavings, construction debris, and lubricants entering pipes. Over time, even microscopic particles can damage pumps, clog microchannels, or cause corrosion. These can be highly problematic and difficult to fix. 𝟯/ 𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 Managing liquid is quite different from traditional air cooling too. And this requires a shift in responsibilities. This means developing: - Managing coolant quality. - Shared operational procedures. - Cross training of IT staff, operators. Did I mention that PS Lee shared about these and more in the Jan issue of WMedia's CD Magazine? (Link in comments). 𝟰/ 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁 Finally, liquid cooling can be unforgiving when a critical failure happens: the time to failure can be a lot lower than air-cooling. At the heart of the matter is the sheer heat capacity of liquid cooling. Take it away, and things go bad far more quickly. And this isn't theory. In 2023, DBS Bank suffered a massive outage, when a vendor at the data centre "incorrectly sent a signal to close the valves from the chilled water buffer tanks." (Read "DBS goes down": https://lnkd.in/gCJNfKFW) 📆 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 Don't be limited by what LinkedIn shows you. Get my weekly digest via email: www.techstories.co/updates My name is Paul Mah and I explore tech developments with bite-sized reports in #EverydayTechStories 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁: Paul Mah. A direct to chip deployment at the Sustainable Tropical Data Centre Testbed (STDCT) at NUS, Singapore.

This week, STT GDC broke ground on its third data centre in Indonesia and also topped off its second facility. The company has been expanding rapidly in Jakarta, with four data centres in different stages of construction. 𝟭/ 𝗦𝗧𝗧 𝗚𝗗𝗖 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗮 All STT GDC's data centres in Indonesia are currently located in the Greenland International Industrial Centre (GIIC). - STT Jakarta 1 (18MW) - Went live in 2023. - STT Jakarta 2 (24MW) - Operational by 2026. - STT Jakarta 3 (24MW) - Groundbreaking. - STT Jakarta 4 (32MW) - Under development. STT Jakarta 2 and STT Jakarta 3 will be supported by a dedicated 150kV substation and will be AI-ready for high-performance, high-density workloads. Additional details for STT Jakarta 2 and STT Jakarta 3 are not publicly available at this point. 𝟮/ 𝗦𝗧𝗧 𝗝𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗮 𝟭 A data sheet available for STT Jakarta 1 offers more clarity, notably pegging its capacity at 18MW of IT load - indicating that all figures are for IT loads. Some details jumped out at me: - Mentions of walls units. - Use of adiabatic chillers. - Buffer tanks for chilled water. - Good floor loading of 15 kN/sqm. My overall impression is that of an advanced data centre but one designed without AI in mind. Of course, construction for STT Jakarta 1 would already have started when ChatGPT came out in Nov 2022. From the announcement, STT Jakarta 2 onwards will likely be designed very differently. 𝟯/ 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗚𝗜𝗜𝗖 Unlike some industrial parks in Indonesia, GIIC doesn't operate its own independent power plant but relies on state-owned PLN for its power supply. With support from the top to meet the government's vision of becoming a hub for data centres, it does feature premium facilities and electricity infrastructure. - Its own wastewater treatment plant. - Supported by extra-high voltage substations. - Access to green energy options through PLN. I look forward to learning more about STT Jakarta 2 and STT Jakarta 3 in the year ahead! Read the STT GDC LinkedIn post here: https://lnkd.in/gMAiR8xn 📆 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 Don't be limited by what LinkedIn shows you. Get my weekly digest via email: www.techstories.co/updates My name is Paul Mah and I explore tech developments with bite-sized reports in #EverydayTechStories 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁: STT GDC

With solar on land, over water and at sea; Singapore is probably the most solar-dense city in the world. And it's set to get even more solar installations. 𝟭/ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 It is an irony. Singapore never had it easy: Not enough water, no natural resources, and not enough land to feed its people. It was supposed to fail. But it overcame the challenges. Fast-forward 60 years, and the reality of its constraints is biting again. In the era of sustainability, its limited land means traditional solar farms aren't an option. 𝟮/ 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟱𝟬𝟬 𝘁𝗼 ~𝟭𝟭,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 But invest in solar Singapore did, because there are no other viable options. - The wind is not strong enough. - The waves are not high enough. - Geothermal looks promising but is limited. So, Singapore turned to solar. According to the EMA, there were around 10,978 solar photovoltaic (PV) installations at the end of 2024, up from a mere 523 a decade ago. As of end-2024, Singapore has also hit its 2025 target of 1.5GWp of installed PV capacity. 𝟯/ 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Singapore made solar work by installing PV systems wherever it could. It's somewhat mind-boggling: - Floating panels across multiple reservoirs. - Near-shore floating PV platforms at sea. - On the rooftops of HDB flats. - Ground-mounted panels. As observed by EMA's TOH Wee Khiang in a recent post, Singapore probably has the most varied range of solar installations. 𝟰/ 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗿, 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗿, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 It is not stopping there though. There are other deployment options being rolled out or studied for feasibility. Being rolled out: - Vertical deployments: Solar panels on walls. - Canopy-based: Mount them over walkways. (Read "This data centre has vertical solar panels": https://lnkd.in/gtBqhaDn) The use of "Structural PV" is currently being studied. These are solar panels over: - Roads. - Canals. - Between buildings. What's next for Singapore? For now, the goal is to install at least 2GWp of solar PV systems by 2030. Beyond that are multiple plans to import renewables. But that's a post for another day. 𝗣𝗦 If you want to read about plans for a sustainable data centre park with floating data centre modules in Singapore, do check out the following post. (Read "Keppel's 1GW floating data centre park" here: https://lnkd.in/gs7mRXEE) 📆 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 Don't be limited by what LinkedIn shows you. Get my weekly digest via email: www.techstories.co/updates My name is Paul Mah and I explore tech developments with bite-sized reports in #EverydayTechStories 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁: Sembcorp. Floating solar farm at Tengeh Reservoir.

AirTrunk is borrowing US$1.7B for a new 80.2MW data centre in Singapore. And industry watchers are scratching their heads over this mystery facility. According to a Bloomberg report this afternoon, AirTrunk is seeking a US$1.7 billion (SG$2.2b) green loan for a new data centre project in Singapore. Except nobody could figure out where this greenfield data centre will be. 𝟭/ 𝗟𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 A frontrunner at recognising the value of data centres, Singapore is currently a regional data centre hub. Unfortunately, sustainability concerns put the brakes on them. (Read "Has S'pore lost the data centre race?": https://lnkd.in/gddRYS3b) In 2019, Singapore imposed an "implicit" moratorium on new data centres. It ended in 2022 with the announcement of a Data Centre - Call for Application (DC-CFA) exercise. The DC-CFA raised the bar on the sector here by awarding capacity for new data centres based on a list of sustainability and economic criteria. 𝘁𝗹𝗱𝗿: Data centre capacity is tightly managed in Singapore, and everyone in the industry knows who it goes to. Or do they truly? 𝟮/ 𝗔𝗶𝗿𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗲 In 2023 when the DC-CFA winners were announced, AirTrunk was one of four winning operators awarded 20MW of new capacity each. (Read "Pilot DC-CFA winners": https://lnkd.in/g7xXd_dR) It is not clear if the construction of AirTrunk's new data centre has started, though I heard a contractor has been awarded. But that's 20MW; AirTrunk is apparently raising money for a new 80.2MW data centre. Separately, AirTrunk has an operational SGP1 data centre campus in Loyang, which launched in 2020 as a "60+" MW data centre, and is now a "78+" MW campus, according to its website - I don't think it is related to the loan. 𝟯/ 𝗔 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗲 In May last year, Singapore shocked the industry when it announced 300MW of new capacity for data centres, a massive injection to the 1.4GW of data centres here. According to my notes, this capacity will be allocated through processes such as the DC-CFA - but not limited to it, and is available to both 𝗻𝗲𝘄 and 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 data centres. (Read "S'pore's 500MW": https://lnkd.in/gbyzDxxR) So, has the Singapore government agreed to retroactively allocate more capacity to AirTrunk's DC-CFA facility? Is there a mistake in the Bloomberg report? Or did AirTrunk get approval for a new 80.2MW data centre outside of the DC-CFA? For now, the mystery remains. 📆 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 Don't be limited by what LinkedIn shows you. Get my weekly digest via email: www.techstories.co/updates My name is Paul Mah and I explore tech developments with bite-sized reports in #EverydayTechStories 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁: AirTrunk. Video still of AirTrunk's SGP1 data centre.