APAC Sustainable Data Center Market Growth Insights – Power Capacity to Reach 5,190 MW by 2031, Driven by Rapid Cloud Adoption, AI Workloads, Digitalization, Hyperscale Expansion, and Rising Demand for Sustainable Data Center Infrastructure (2026–2031)

Renewable energy integration has become a key priority for data center operators in the APAC region as they leverage clean power procurement, on-site renewable generation, and innovative energy partnerships to enhance sustainability, improve energy resilience, and address rising electricity demand.

Meta's first AI-enabled data center in Jamnagar, India, developed with Reliance Industries, will be powered by renewable energy, with additional clean energy procurement of nearly 1 GW (837 MW of solar and wind projects with CleanMax as well as 88 MW with Fourth Partner Energy across multiple states.

The rising integration of renewable energy across the data centers in APAC underscores a fundamental shift toward sustainable digital infrastructure. As power demand continues to rise, operators are expected to further expand investments in renewable energy procurement, on-site generation, and low-carbon power solutions to ensure resilient, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible data center operations.

Advanced cooling technologies are becoming central to sustainable data center development across APAC, with operators adopting liquid cooling, free cooling, seawater-based cooling, and recycled-water systems to reduce energy and water consumption while supporting high-density AI workloads.

Innovative cooling and water-management approaches are expanding beyond conventional land-based facilities, with projects such as China’s underwater data center, Keppel’s floating data center in Singapore, and AWS’s recycled-water cooling initiative in Australia demonstrating the region’s shift toward resource-efficient infrastructure.

AI-driven growth is accelerating investment in next-generation cooling solutions, including liquid cooling and free-cooling systems that reduce reliance on energy-intensive chillers and improve efficiency. Emerging approaches such as Hydroleap’s chemical-free water treatment further support lower PUE and WUE, strengthening the sustainability of APAC’s expanding data center infrastructure.

APAC faces heightened carbon risks as data center capacity expands, with the region potentially accounting for more than 40% of global data center capacity by 2030, while approximately 49% of its energy supply still comes from coal, creating challenges for achieving corporate and national net-zero targets.

AirTrunk reported a 25.4% increase in direct operational and purchased electricity emissions in FY25 compared with its FY22 baseline, reflecting the rapid expansion of its data center portfolio and growing customer demand, while highlighting the challenge of reducing emissions amid accelerating AI and cloud infrastructure growth.

As AI and hyperscale expansion accelerates data center capacity across APAC, rising carbon emissions will make renewable energy procurement, energy-efficient infrastructure, and measurable net-zero strategies increasingly critical to achieving sustainable growth.

As data centers transition from traditional air cooling to high-performance cooling technologies such as liquid cooling to support AI workloads and improve energy efficiency, water demand is increasing. While liquid cooling can reduce electricity consumption for cooling, many liquid cooling systems rely on water-based heat rejection, creating new challenges around sustainable water use, particularly in water-stressed regions.

In 2025, Malaysia approved less than 18% of data centers' water supply requests, with only 142.06 million liters per day (MLD) approved out of 808 MLD requested across 101 data centers in Johor, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. The shortfall highlights growing water resource constraints and the need for data centers to adopt alternative water sources such as reclaimed water and seawater.

Growing water scarcity is encouraging data center operators across APAC to prioritize water efficiency and improve Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) through advanced cooling technologies, water recycling, and closed-loop systems. Operators are increasingly setting WUE targets and adopting low-water or water-free cooling solutions to reduce freshwater consumption while supporting sustainable data center expansion.

Rapid Growth of Hyperscale and AI Campuses

The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is accelerating the development of large-scale hyperscale data center campuses across India, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Japan, and other APAC markets, driving demand for energy-efficient cooling systems, renewable energy sourcing, and sustainable data center designs.

Google’s expansion of hyperscale infrastructure in Malaysia is being supported by a 21-year renewable power purchase agreement with TotalEnergies, securing approximately 1 TWh of clean electricity from the Citra Energies solar plant for its data center operations, including the $2 billion hyperscale campus under development in Elmina, Selangor.

Meta and Reliance Industries are accelerating AI infrastructure development in India with plans for a 168 MW AI-enabled data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat, Meta’s first built-to-suit AI data center in the country. The facility will be supported by 1 GW of new renewable energy and desalinated seawater cooling, highlighting the growing integration of sustainable power and resource-efficient technologies in large-scale AI campuses.

Corporate Net-Zero and ESG Commitments

Corporate net-zero and ESG commitments are increasingly shaping data center development across APAC, driving operators and hyperscalers to adopt renewable energy, energy-efficient technologies, low-carbon infrastructure, and sustainable resource management to reduce emissions and improve environmental performance.

APAC data center operators are strengthening net-zero and ESG commitments, with AirTrunk, NTT DATA, Princeton Digital Group, and DayOne targeting significant emissions reductions or net-zero operations by 2030–2040, supported by renewable energy procurement, energy efficiency, and low-carbon technologies.

Data center operators are increasingly targeting lower PUE levels as part of their ESG strategies, with PDG targeting a PUE of 1.2–1.4 across new greenfield facilities and Equinix aiming for a global PUE of 1.33 by 2030. PUE optimization is becoming a key component of sustainable data center development in APAC, driven by energy-efficient infrastructure, renewable energy integration, and advanced cooling technologies to reduce operational energy consumption.