Understanding energy use and sustainability investments at the Singapore datacenters
In each building at every campus and datacenter, sustainability is a key priority for Microsoft across all phases of a project— from site selection to design and construction to operations and decommissioning. Microsoft datacenters, including our facilities in Singapore, are key to our sustainability goals.
Carbon negative by 2030
In 2018, Microsoft signed a renewable energy agreement with Sunseap Group, marking the largest-ever solar project in Singapore.
Power usage effectiveness (PUE) measures cloud energy efficiency. Lower PUE indicates more energy-efficient datacenters, with a PUE of 1.0 being the best score. The new Microsoft Singapore datacenters had a 12-month average PUE of 1.364 through February 2022.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the world’s largest green building certification program. LEED provides the framework for healthy, highly efficient, lower carbon emissions and cost-saving green buildings. LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement and leadership. New Microsoft datacenters are designed to be LEED Gold certified.
Globally, Microsoft datacenters use fossil fuel generators for backup power during the rare grid emergency, which accounts for less than 1 percent of our overall emissions. For our backup generators, we expect to transform to a renewable fuel blend by 2027.
Water positive by 2030
Due to climate and humidity in Singapore, the Microsoft datacenter uses NEWater and mechanical cooling to keep servers at the proper temperature for operation. NEWater is a reclaimed water source produced from further purifying treatment water. In 2021, the Microsoft datacenter in Singapore utilized 305 million liters of reclaimed water for cooling with an efficiency rate of rate of 1.97 L/kWh.
A second datacenter, which is currently being constructed, will use indirect evaporative and mechanical cooling. The design WUE is 1.9 L/kWh.
Zero waste by 2030
Microsoft has a goal to achieve 90 percent diversion of datacenter operational waste by 2030. To reach this goal, we’re working closely with our waste haulers to optimize waste diversion programs across our global datacenter portfolio.
In 2020, we successfully opened our first Microsoft Circular Center in our North Holland datacenters, which is designed to extend the life cycle of servers through reuse and support a circular economy for the Microsoft Cloud.
By the end of 2022, we will bring the first Microsoft Circular Center to Singapore. Microsoft Circular Centers are able to process 12,000 servers per month for reuse.
Globally, Microsoft datacenters reuse 78 percent of our end-of-life assets and components; the remaining 22 percent of materials are recycled. We are continuing to research further methods to reduce waste by determining new recycling solutions for used air filters and fiber-optic cables.
