Taiwan has stopped approving data centers larger than 5MW in the regions north of Taoyuan, citing insufficient power supply.
First reported in DataCenter Knowledge, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a Facebook post that there is a bottleneck in the northern region. This area needs more grid infrastructure and new power sources to meet rising demand.
The last time approvals were given for large data centers in the north was in September of last year.
State-owned utility Taipower said data centers should be prioritized in the central and southern regions of the island, where there is sufficient renewable energy.
Last month, the country shut down one of its two remaining nuclear reactors as it looks to free itself from the technology by 2025.
Energy security is now a key issue on the island, with other energy-intensive corporations such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company adding to power demands.
Singapore imposed a moratorium on data centers in 2019 because of power shortage concerns but lifted it in 2022.
Currently, in the north of the island in the capital Taipei, Vantage, Empyrion, and NTT have a presence.
Apple is reportedly looking to develop a data center in Taiwan.
Other major international companies developing in Taiwan include Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) which shared plans for a Taipei cloud region in June 2024, and Microsoft.
