![Banpu NEXT partners with Evolution Data Centres, to provide smart energy solutions to improve sustainability for their Thailand and Vietnam data centres](/img/files/20240314/iq0b81377a62534dcb7cdb2722ba78c6cf.jpg)
Banpu NEXT, a subsidiary of Banpu, a leading smart energy solutions provider in Asia-Pacific, together with Evolution Data Centres (EDC), a leading data centre provider, have joined forces to provide smart energy solutions for EDC's data centres in Thailand and Vietnam. This will also contribute to the economic growth of both countries and address the rising demand for cloud computing and data centre capacity in the region. This agreement underlines both parties' commitment to a future Net-Zero society.
The hyper-scale data centre market in the Asia-Pacific region* is projected to expand at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.21% from 2024 to 2029, with growth largely driven by the burgeoning cloud computing industry, which is seeing increased demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Data centre demand in Thailand is expected to experience a CAGR of 27% between 2021 and 2026**. The partnership between Banpu NEXT and EDC will deliver environmentally friendlier data centres to support the growth of Thailand's digital economy.
In Vietnam, the data centre industry is supporting the country's economic growth, in line with the government's direction for the digital economy to account for 25% of GDP by 2025. Data centre growth is forecast to be 37% CAGR between 2021 and 2026*. Both countries are forecast to become strategic locations for international investors searching for ASEAN emerging hubs that have advanced infrastructure including power distribution, fibre networks, green energy and transportation systems.
Mr Smittipon Srethapramote, Chief Executive Officer, Banpu NEXT Co., Ltd., said: "Banpu NEXT is a total smart energy solutions provider for partners in various industries. Thailand and Vietnam are two of our key operating countries, we are therefore pleased to support EDC with our tailor-made solar power systems and other smart energy solutions. They efficiently meet our customers' needs at full capacity to ensure sufficient and sustainable processing power across their hyper-scale data centres, while helping them reduce energy costs and cutting CO2 emissions annually. We are committed to fulfilling up to 100% of the capacity needs for each individual site. This could be as much as 30MW for the initial site in Thailand and up to 50MW for the first site in Vietnam."
Mr Darren Webb, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Evolution Data Centres, said: "Building and operating greener, more sustainable, infrastructure is core to Evolution and more importantly is quickly becoming a critical requirement from the customer segments we serve. We recognise that to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, operators need to secure access to sustainable power at scale. Banpu NEXT will provide EDC with high-capacity renewable power, that will allow us to provide our customers with reliable, sustainable energy at our data centres in both Thailand and Vietnam. These campuses will serve as key locations to enable digital infrastructure, help those markets attract foreign investment and address the growing digital demands of both countries. The partnership with Banpu NEXT will enhance EDC's ability to develop and operate hyperscale, more sustainable data centres in the region."
In the future, Banpu NEXT plans to implement other smart energy solutions to further improve EDC's data centres' energy efficiency. These include the potential for energy storage systems as well as energy management services such as cooling systems.