Keppel has started construction on a floating data centre project in Singapore, a 25MW facility designed to combat land and water constraints affecting data centre development.
The company disclosed the construction plans in its first-quarter 2026 business update, aiming to begin work on the Keppel DC SGP 9 in mid-2026 at its Genting Lane campus.
Singapore capacity rules
Singapore manages new data centre capacity through formal allocation exercises. In December 2025, the Economic Development Board and Infocomm Media Development Authority launched a second ‘Data Centre – Call for Application’, making at least 200MW of capacity available.
The call requires applicants to meet sustainability standards, including a Green Mark for Data Centres 2024 Platinum certification, facility-level power use effectiveness of 1.25 or better at full IT load, and at least 50% power from green energy sources.
Keppel began exploring the floating data centre park concept in 2019 and secured regulatory approval in 2023, according to Data Centre Dynamics. It cited Keppel’s 2025 annual report as being funded by Keppel Data Centre Fund II and is scheduled to go live in 2028.
Floating design and cooling
According to Keppel’s 2025 environment report, SGP 9 is to include a four-storey, 19.2MW waterborne module and shoreside infrastructure occupying about 9,870m2 of land and 7,580m2 of sea surface. The project is expected to be located at 25 Loyang Crescent in Singapore.
Keppel says its floating data centre concept is designed for near-shore locations and aims to use seawater for cooling, reducing reliance on potable or industrial water used in conventional data centres. The concept is described as modular, with floating units that can be redeployed in other locations.
Keppel’s May 2025 investor presentation listed subsea cables as part of its wider digital infrastructure ecosystem, with data centres, power, and related services.
Global floating data centre projects
Floating data centre projects remain limited globally. Most examples of floating data centres are still at the pilot, platform development, or patent stages.
- Nautilus Data Technologies launched a 6.5MW barge-based data centre in Stockton, California, in 2021. The 20,000ft2 facility was later put up for sale in 2024 after Nautilus moved its business focus to cooling infrastructure.
- In France, Denv-R has placed a small containerised data centre on a floating platform in Nantes.
- A consortium of Japanese companies announced a pilot project earlier this year to deploy an offshore floating data centre off the coast of Yokohama with solar and battery storage systems.
- Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has partnered with energy systems provider Kinetics and Hitachi to develop a floating data centre platform.
(Photo by Markus Stickling)
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