Thailand is touted to become a regional hub for AI data centres -- a trend that raises questions about how the government will deal with energy and water constraints.The question of water and electricity to run these centres is not addressed by a government that now seems focused on inviting more tech companies to open data centres in Thailand.
Thailand is placed as a high-growth market alongside Indonesia in a recent report on data centre trends, released early this month by CBRE Asia Pacific. In the property analysis, Bangkok, Chon Buri and Rayong are projected as areas for new data centre development, particularly within the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
The report would be music to the ears were it not for another, on AI, released the same week by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).
Titled "The Environmental Cost of AI's Energy Use: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints", it examines the ecological footprint of AI data centres -- indeed mainly large stores housing hundreds of thousands of servers that store, process and transmit digital data. They demand enormous, steady electricity to run 24/7 and huge amounts of water to cool the heat.
The report projected that by 2030, data centres powering artificial intelligence will need 945 terawatt-hours of electricity -- nearly triple the combined annual use of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria, countries collectively home to more than 650 million people.
These stores will demand water equal to the needs of all 1.3 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa, and their land footprint will exceed 14,500 square kilometres, roughly twice the Jakarta metropolitan area, home to more than 32 million people, according to the UNU-INWEH report.
The simple yet big question is how Thailand will cope with such an appetite. More worrying is how the government can reduce the impact on communities, especially farmers who must share resources with these digital projects.
There is no answer from the government. On electricity, state utilities worry that demand from AI data centres will push the reserve margin down to 15% -- from the required 30-40%. Policymakers have yet to find how to obtain more power without hitting price, emissions and fuel security.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand is trying to sell society on the small modular reactor (SMR) -- a newer type of nuclear system. However, the SMR is a nascent technology and will take years to go mainstream.
More worrying than the electricity constraint is water scarcity.
As the EEC becomes the designated area for data centres, notably in Chon Buri and Rayong, have policymakers prepared enough water for their farm sectors, the large petrochemical complex in Rayong, the tourism industry in Pattaya and all these data centres? Lest we forget, water shortages have increasingly pitted farmers against industry in recent years.
The arrival of more data centres will exacerbate such tensions.
Make no mistake: AI and digital investment are crucial for Thailand's economy, and this editorial is not a case against AI and data centres. It is a call for responsible policy to ensure equal resource sharing among all sectors.
