Johnson Controls joins Singapore tropical data centre testbed to cut AI power and water use

Singapore is expanding data centre capacity, but tropical heat and humidity make cooling a major challenge. Johnson Controls is joining the Sustainable Tropical Data Centre Testbed 2.0 at NUS to test new thermal management and control technologies in real conditions. The goal is to reduce power and water consumption while squeezing more computing capacity out of existing infrastructure. The company says its integrated approach can cut non-IT energy use by up to 50% compared to conventional cooling. In a 1-gigawatt blueprint, waste heat recovery could add up to 97 MW of extra AI capacity while cutting cooling-related electrical demand by 44%. The research will inform designs for Singapore and other tropical markets, where efficiency and water scarcity are critical constraints.