SINGAPORE - United States data centre operator Digital Realty officially opened its third data centre in Loyang on Tuesday (April 6), bringing its total investment in such centres in Singapore to US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion).

This comes as Singapore was ranked among the top 10 data centre markets in the world last month.

Digital Realty's new data centre here, called Digital Loyang II, spans 34,000 sq m, or the size of about 27 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Digital Loyang II is able to carry an IT load of 50 megawatts.

This is larger than the combined IT load of about 40 megawatts for the first two data centres - Digital Jurong launched in 2010 and Digital Loyang I launched in 2016.

Data centres are used by organisations to store, process and transmit large amounts of data.

Digital Realty was not able to give a breakdown of the US$1 billion invested in its three data centres here.

But The Business Times reported in 2019 that over US$500 million was invested in the two earlier data facility projects.

Speaking at the newest data centre's launch, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee said the facility received the highest certification that a data centre can attain under a government Green Mark scheme for such centres.

"As the digital economy continues to grow, it is important to ensure that our digital infrastructure is as environmentally sustainable as possible, and (Digital Loyang II) has done well to be over 30 per cent more energy efficient than the industry norm," said Mr Lee.

Last month, the Arcadis Data Centre Location Index 2021 ranked Singapore as the second-most attractive city to build data centres, out of a total of 50 cities.

Cushman & Wakefield's 2021 Global Data Centre Market Comparison report ranked Singapore's data centre market as No. 5 out of 48 markets in total.