A consortium comprising Nippon Yusen K.K. (NYK Line), NTT Facilities Co., Ltd., Eurus Energy Holdings Co., Ltd., and the Bank of Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., have reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the city of Yokohama, to build a solar-powered floating data center in the sea.
While NYK Line is a shipping company, NTT Facilities is an architecture firm, and Eurus Energy is a renewable energy company. In a press release Yokohama city authorities revealed that a demonstration experiment will be conducted using a mini float installed at Osanbashi Wharf, later this year.
A containerised data center will reportedly be placed on the 25-metre by 80-metre float along with solar power apparatus and battery storage. Based on the results, further deployment in the area could be considered.
This project is in line with Japan’s GX2040 Vision which sets ambitious sustainability targets such as carbon neutrality by 2050. These goals become even more challenging in wake of the artificial intelligence boom where AI workloads are placing an increasingly greater strain on compute power, energy consumption and cooling in data centers.
Japan is one of the most sought after data center destinations in the Asia Pacific region. Mordor Intelligence estimates the size of Japan’s data center market 2.32GW in 2025, and expects it to reach 3.66GW by 2030, growing at a Compounded Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.51 percent.