KUCHING: A consortium made up of Sarawak’s TSG Group and Singapore’s Cyclect Group will develop Borneo’s largest renewable energy (RE) park in Kota Samarahan in southern Sarawak.
A 200MW green data centre and a host of other facilities such as healthcare and education as well as high-end residential properties have been planned by FutureData Sdn Bhd in an integrated green district dubbed “FutureGreen District”.
The FutureGreen District is a new township of mixed development to be fully powered by green infrastructure.
FutureData, set up by TSG group, will partner with Cyclect, a regional Singaporean power and engineering firm, to develop the data centre park.
Kota Samarahan, which is about 30km southeast of Kuching, has undergone rapid development in recent years and is home to several universities and colleges as well as Sarawak Heart Centre.
Located there are Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Teknologi MARA Sarawak and Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Tun Abdul Razak.
TSG Group chief executive officer Datuk Chris Chung Soon Nam said FutureData was set up to position Sarawak as an innovative integrated model for green data centre, shaping the state’s future.
“FutureData will design, build and operate a cutting-edge carbon neutral green data centre that utilises energy-efficient technologies with a planned capacity of 200 MW.”
He said this will be the first major data centre not only in Sarawak but Borneo.
“We are working on a build-to-suit data centre model.
“In partnership with Cyclect’s expertise and our 800 local staff with project implementation experience, we will have flexible solutions that allow our international partners to design and customise data centre facility and operations to meet different needs.
“We aim to tap into the positive outlook of the domestic data centre industry and the rising demand for cloud services in the region,” he said at the launch of FutureData at the Shape The World Summit gala dinner.
Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg officiated at the launch.
Shape The World Summit, which was launched in Singapore in 2005 and had been hosted by the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar, was held in Malaysia for the first time.
Chung said Cyclect Group, which is a multi-disciplinary sustainable engineering and maintenance solutions provider with a global presence in nine countries, will be the technical partner in the data centre park project.
He said the data centre park project will be developed into a new integrated FutureGreen District, which will feature healthcare, education and high-end residential properties for foreigners seeking a second home in Malaysia.
“These facilities will be powered by green infrastructure including a circular economy and green energy produced from each household that could contribute to the grid.
“It will be a ‘Green Living’ system design covering power, lifestyle and recycling and show a Sarawakian version of green lifestyle. It will require a shift in mindset and behaviours.”
Chung said through the project, TSG hopes to implement a viable sustainability development on a scale that can showcase Sarawak as a gateway cybercity, a green city featuring green data centres and creating green and digital jobs for the young people.
The TSG Group is involved in various business sectors in Sarawak such as infrastructure, under which it has built 652 bridges in rural Sarawak over the years.
Via subsidiary TSG Green Sdn Bhd, the group plans to plant one million trees in Sarawak by end-2023 under its FutureTrees project.
According to Chung, TSG Green is the first to establish a tissue culture lab in Sarawak for mass-producing identical clones of RT-Paulowina through a bioprocess of micropropagation.
The company has named the RT-Paulownia planted trees as FutureTrees, symbolising its commitment to sustainable development for future generations.
Cyclect Group managing director Melvin Tan said Sarawak’s favourable environment and resources make the state an ideal location for data centres, which play a crucial role in shaping the future by fuelling innovation and supporting advancements in artificial intelligence.
He said the data centres in Sarawak will serve as the backbone of the digital economy, storing, processing and transmitting vast amounts of data for eCommence, social media, cloud computing and streaming.
Noting that data centres require a lot of resources like land to build on, power to operate, cooling system to prevent overheating and connectivity to communicate, he said it makes sense to put them in a place like Kuching where land and reliable energy sources are abundant and affordable.
Tan said he was captivated by Sarawak’s journey towards a green future and its strong commitment to fight climate change while maintaining its role as the “lung of the world”.
These initiatives and efforts have attracted companies like Cyclect Group to be involved in the RE data park project in Kota Samarahan.
Speaking at the launch, Abang Johari said Sarawak has in recent years been actively working and succeeded in developing renewable and green energy including hydro, solar, wind and biomass, in line with its energy and economic transition policies.
“This is an ambitious dream but we are eager to share our comparative advantage with countries like Singapore to produce green and RE which is sustainable.
“Sarawak has ample space and natural resources for energy whereas Singapore has the brains. So, we must let the brains combine with space and energy for mutual benefit.
“You will not only have industries that are based on green energy but the products will also be green, and this will be favourable to the environmental, social and governance set by banking institutions,” he added.
