Four power sources walked into an MOU. The price stayed outside.

Why it matters

Sembcorp and Nxera put hydrogen, biomethane, building solar and imported floating-solar power on the table for Singapore data centres. The memorandum names options; the announcement leaves the commercial terms blank.

Mara Voss26 October 2026Reading Time 2 minLast update: 26 October 2026

Conceptual cover illustration: four lower-carbon power options and an unsigned supply agreement.

Summary

Sembcorp Utilities and Nxera Singapore will assess lower-carbon energy supply for Nxera data centres in Singapore.
The four routes span hydrogen, biomethane, building photovoltaics and imports from a 2.2 GWp floating-solar project in Johor.

The memorandum arrives with four possible power sources and no price list. Sembcorp Utilities and Nxera Singapore announced it on 26 October at Singapore International Energy Week. Their plan is to assess renewable and low-carbon energy for Nxera’s Singapore data centres: hydrogen-based generation, biomethane, photovoltaic panels applied to buildings, and imports from a 2.2 GWp floating-solar project at Linggiu Reservoir in Johor, Malaysia.

The announcement gives no contracted energy volume, tariff, commissioning date or allocation from Linggiu to Nxera. The 2.2 GWp figure describes the project’s stated peak solar capacity; it is not a reservation for the data-centre operator. Plant capacity and customer delivery belong in different cells of the spreadsheet.

The options also have different operating shapes. Solar output moves with the sun; a server room keeps its own hours, so grid supply, storage or other generation must cover the gaps. Hydrogen and biomethane need fuel, conversion equipment and a cost that can survive a procurement meeting. Building photovoltaics depend on usable surface, a scarce input in dense Singapore.

The Energy Market Authority says Singapore’s peak demand was 8.6 GW in August 2026 and could reach 9.9–13 GW by 2031. Data centres and semiconductor manufacturing are among the growth drivers. Nxera says it is working toward operational Scope 1 and 2 net zero by 2028 across its Singapore data centres. The buyer needs electricity when the servers ask for it, plus a record of where that electricity came from.

The next useful announcement will name MWh, delivery dates, price logic, balancing responsibility and how renewable attributes are assigned. Until those lines appear, the memorandum is a negotiating map. A good map; not yet a meter reading.