Esteemed guest: Star Media Group Bhd chief business officer Lydia Wang (left) and SMG group chief executive officer Chan Seng Fatt (right) presenting a token of appreciation to Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching after the conclusion of Teo’s speech at the Cloudtech & Data Centre 2024 Conference.
KUALA LUMPUR: Sustainability needs to be a core focus as Malaysia experiences a data centre boom, given that these facilities use huge amounts of energy, says an expert.
Basis Bay chief executive officer of data centres Thyaga Rajan said the industry and government must invest in renewable energy projects and energy-efficient technologies to address the large carbon footprint of data centres, whose high electricity consumption is “alarming and concerning.”
“We have to invest in renewable energy – in solar, hydroelectric, biogas and wind,” he said during the CloudTech and Data Centre Conference 2024 here yesterday.
He said by 2035, Malaysia’s energy use is projected to exceed 5,000 megawatts (MW), according to Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).
“For the 2024 energy demand outlook, nine new data centre projects would need a total energy supply of around 700MW.
Talking sense: Thyaga speaking at the conference. — LOW BOON TAT/The Star.“Additionally, 10 new electricity supply agreements were signed to commit around 2,000MW to meet these data centres’ energy demand.
“Data centres also need cooling, which means more resources that we need to consider,” Thyaga told an audience of IT industry leaders and professionals.
Malaysia is behind in renewable energy investments and industry players have the responsibility to adapt sustainable practices, he said.
For instance, TNB’s 2023 report showed that electricity generated from renewable sources only make up 6% of the nation’s total energy mix.
“Solar energy itself only comprises 1.5% of the energy mix, compared with non-renewables such as coal, natural gas and other petroleum products that make up 94% of energy generation,” said Thyaga.
Basis Bay, he said, has a strategic approach to minimising environmental impact through state-of-the-art technology and stringent governance.
“Being self-sustainable through renewable energy is challenging, especially for data centres that consume a high amount of power,” he acknowledged.
Basis Bay looks to examples of green commercial buildings, such as the Bullitt Center in the United States and the Pixel Building in Australia, as models for sustainable design, he added.
“It starts from the building blocks, using innovative construction materials like eco-friendly bricks,” he said.
Basis Bay’s IT facilities also have energy-efficient hardware so that servers and cooling systems are optimised to save energy, he added.
Other green practices, he said, are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimise data centre operations.
“These sustainable practices are important because they would extend the product’s lifecycle. For the first two years of a server, the chances of it failing are higher. But as the server operates for more than five years, it becomes stable and its value increases,” he added.
Thyaga also said the company calculates the carbon footprint of all its data centres and this should be done by other responsible data centre operators.
“Industry players should adopt best practices, as well as champion and support regulations that incentivise emission reduction.
“They should also embrace sustainable data centre design, operations and reporting,” he added.
Basis Bay’s latest data centre in Cyberjaya, Basis Bay Data Centre 2, is an eco-friendly data centre, said Thyaga.
“Basis Bay shall continue to lead the industry by example. Our comprehensive approach to sustainable IT infrastructure exemplifies how technological innovation and environmental stewardship can exist harmoniously,” he added.
