Malaysia is aiming to become a data centre hub in the region, with a slew of investments in such facilities being announced in recent months. In fact, approved investments from data centres amounted to RM114.7 billion from 2021 to 2023. More recent announcements have included Microsoft Corp’s investment of US$2.2 billion (RM10.4 billion) in cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in Malaysia.
Data centres are the backbone of the digital economy, which requires immense computing power to fuel the latest technologies like AI, hence the development of such infrastructure is only expected to increase. But concerns have been raised on the environmental impact of data centres. Known to be energy guzzlers, these facilities may put a strain on the national grid and water resources. This begs the question of whether Malaysia should impose more stringent environmental impact-related prerequisites on incoming data centres.
Strong government and industry efforts in energy efficiency are necessary to curb energy demand and growth of emissions.
For instance, the air-conditioning system, which accounts for half of the energy consumed by data centres, could utilise thermal energy storage or the district cooling system, says AHAR’s Arul. These technologies, which produce chilled water during off-peak periods, can be used to reduce power consumption and peak demands during the daytime.
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