Keppel signs preliminary agreement for liquid hydrogen
That could potentially power its Singapore data centres.
Keppel has signed a preliminary agreement for liquid hydrogen to potentially power its Singapore data centres.
The conditional agreement was signed with Woodside, an Australian energy producer and follows a non-binding agreement in April last year.
Liquid hydrogen
The agreement is a prelude to a binding agreement for the potential supply of liquid hydrogen, though it won't happen until at least 2030.
Keppel says it intend for the potential liquid hydrogen supply to form part of a utility-scale portfolio that Keppel is building to power its assets.
This could refer to its 600MW hydrogen-ready power plant that is slated to be completed in 2026 or an upcoming data centre project - more on that later.
Keppel in Singapore
Keppel has a sizeable data centre portfolio in Singapore, with the newest being the one at 82 Genting Lane known as Keppel DC Singapore 8.
There are seven Keppel data centres are located strategically around Singapore: Serangoon, Tampines, Woodlands, Tanjong Kling, and Sunview.
Keppel data centres are known to host the IT systems of many government agencies and key institutes in Singapore.
Vision for sustainability
I've spoken with the CEO of Keppel Data Centres, Wai Meng WONG a handful of times, and he had always struck me as a pragmatic yet forward-looking leader.
Even before sustainability became the big thing it is now, he was often talking about topics such as:
- Use of seawater for cooling data centres.
- Exploring hydrogen to power data centres.
- Capturing cold energy from LNG regasification.
And yes, Keppel is also developing a Floating Data Centre Park (FDCP), located at the Loyang Offshore Supply Base in the East of Singapore.
It's worth noting that the use of hydrogen for power was mooted as a possible development for the FDCP. I'll write more about it tomorrow.
