Japan Renewable Energy Corporation (JRE) has successfully launched its solar-powered data center in Nagano prefecture. Designed and constructed by Mirait Corporation, this marks JRE’s first venture into such a project. The data center, located within JRE’s solar power plant, began operations in December 2022 and has been running smoothly ever since.
The data center serves as the hosting site for Morgenrot Inc, a provider of distributed cloud computing solutions specializing in GPU solutions and renewable energy. Leveraging JRE’s facility, Morgenrot offers its M:CPP GPU cloud service.
JRE’s Nagano Omachi Solar Power Plant has an installed capacity of 2,443 kW, generating 3,500,000 kWh annually. The data center can house 40 AMD and Nvidia GPU servers and uses an innovative chiller-less cooling system that utilizes water from a nearby well. It operates with zero CO2 emissions, refrains from using CFC refrigerants, and boasts an impressive Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.1.
The establishment of this data center is the outcome of a joint project announced by JRE and Morgenrot in June 2022. The facility is optimized for artificial intelligence, simulation applications, and Morgenrot’s GPU cloud service.
To address the risks associated with concentrated data centers near Tokyo, over 100 local governments volunteered to provide data center locations as part of Japan’s decentralization efforts. This initiative aims to mitigate potential disruptions caused by earthquakes and tsunamis in the region.
Japan has a continuous push towards sustainable and green energy sources driving the adoption of renewable energy solutions including wind and solar power.
Apart from the increasing demand for data storage and processing due to advanced technologies, the adoption of renewable energy creates opportunities not just for data centers but for the data center substation market as well.
With this, according to the recent report of Future Market Insights, Japan will remain as one of the most attractive data center substation markets in Asia as it is estimated to account for nearly 3.4% of the global data center substation industry in 2033.
