Amanda WeeData company Data Dock runs the Niigata Nagaoka Data Center in Niigata Prefecture Japan, and this cold region data center could be the model site for the world’s first sustainable data center. It is a new business model that satisfies areas such as environmental, societal and economic aspects.
The daily operations of the data center produce excess energy such as groundwater, waste heat from IT equipment and heat from melting snow. The data center’s model converts these excess to support hydroponics activities such as aquaponics farming at the Aquaponics Nagaoka Plant. This model is expected to serve as a case study for prospective data centers with the desire to operate sustainably. Data Dock, specifically, hopes to adopt this business model to cold regions of Japan.
This model is also registered for the J-credit scheme – a voluntary carbon offsetting scheme administered by the Japanese government. This scheme is designed with the intention to fight climate change. It certifies and credits greenhouse gas emissions by businesses and companies. Greenhouse gas emissions are tracked from the beginning until the end of a production cycle. These figures are subsequently credited to the J-credit registry, an electronic registry that manages and records J-credits, which are kept private and confidential. This system encourages one company to reduce its greenhouse gas emission to compensate for the emission of another through the transaction of credits. Essentially, credits are transactional and are up for exchange for funds through auction or negotiated transactions.
Living in a computing age today, it is important that data centers are implementing greater efforts to be green. Unlike other products, data centers do not generate waste, however, it is a high-energy sector where sustainability and efficiency are key. Fortunately, with continuously evolving technology, data centers can look forward to discoveries that will bring them closer to their goals for sustainability.
[Reference] PR Times
