Why does Asia need a common “outlet” and mega-internet?
The Pan-Asia Power Grid Initiative aims to interconnect national and sub-regional power grids to enable cross-border flows of renewable energy. In turn, the Asia-Pacific Digital Highway (Asia-Pacific Digital Highway) aims to bridge the digital infrastructure gap and enable the utilization of AI-driven growth, reveals details of the plan by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“Energy access and digitalization will shape the region’s future,” said ADB President Masato Kanda. – These two initiatives are shaping the systems Asia and the Pacific need for growth, competitiveness, and integration. By connecting power grids and digital networks across borders, we can reduce costs, expand opportunities, and provide reliable energy supply and digital access to hundreds of millions of people.”
The super project envisions the entire continent being entangled in invisible but super-powered connections. The basic idea is that electricity and data can freely “walk” between countries. For example, solar energy extracted during the day in Vietnam will be able to power huge servers in Singapore at night.
According to the authors of the project, AI will become cheaper and more accessible: artificial intelligence needs a huge amount of energy and fast communication. A unified network will reduce costs, which means that new services and applications will work faster and cost less.
The end of the digital wilderness
In addition, high-speed internet will reach places where it was only dreamed of before. These are new jobs and training opportunities for millions of people, the authors of the project say.
Another important aspect is technological independence. Asia is actually building its own “digital shell” to be less dependent on Western cloud services and cables across oceans. “We are no longer just building roads. We are laying the nervous system for the future,” say the authors of the project.
This ambitious plan runs until 2035, but we will see the first fruits in the next couple of years. If everything works out, the center of the digital world will finally move to the East, where energy and data will become as accessible as air.
