Hong Kong needs more renewable power and government land grants to be a magnet for low-carbon data centres: experts

Hong Kong, a vibrant city, aspires to be a significant player in the data centre industry in the Asia-Pacific region. However, experts suggest that the city needs to make some crucial changes to achieve this goal. Primarily, it needs to enhance access to electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind energy. This is because data centres consume a substantial amount of electricity, and using renewable sources can help decrease their carbon footprint. A carbon footprint refers to the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that an entity produces. The smaller the carbon footprint, the better it is for our environment. Currently, however, there are significant limitations on using renewable power in Hong Kong. This poses a major barrier to constructing environmentally friendly data centres. Zena Cheng, a vice-president at a prominent data centre provider in Hong Kong, explains that while servers are becoming smaller, they require increasing amounts of power. This implies that the power consumption per unit area is escalating. In fact, data centres worldwide consumed a considerable amount of electricity in 2022, marking a significant increase from 2015. It's not just the data centres that are striving to be more sustainable. Their clients are also pressing for the adoption of more sustainable practices. Clement Chung, a director at an engineering firm, asserts that data centres must seek environmentally friendly solutions to stay in business. However, in Hong Kong, it's challenging to construct large solar farms or find suitable locations for windmills to generate renewable energy. Consequently, data centres in Hong Kong are dependent on the city's power companies for clean energy. Yet, Hong Kong still has a considerable distance to cover before data centres can consistently purchase scalable green energy. Andrew Green, a senior director at a real estate firm, points out that this issue is not exclusive to Hong Kong. It's a global problem. He estimates that it will take at least 15 years before sustainable energy becomes readily available. He also predicts that data centres will continue to be high electricity consumers. If the Hong Kong government is serious about promoting the data centre industry, it should allocate more land for construction. Data centres require ample space, and currently, Hong Kong does not offer any exemptions for building data centres in the city. Chung emphasizes that if Hong Kong wishes to remain a central hub for major players in the Asia-Pacific, it needs government support, a reliable power supply, and a favourable policy.