Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines and Kinetics, a firm specialising in liquefied natural gas assets and renewable energy, have partnered to develop a floating data centre platform.
Following a feasibility study, the two companies plan to construct the data centre hosted on a retrofitted vessel, aiming to begin work next year on converting the first floating data centre with 20 to 73MW and targeting deployment for 2027.
The facility will be supplied with power from a range of flexible sources, including Powerships developed by Karpowership, Kenetics’ parent company.
The floating data centres will have options to integrate land-based grids, onshore solar farms, offshore wind, or other power generation solutions depending on project location and client requirements, according to Mitsui OSK.
Mehmet Katmer, chief executive officer of Kinetics, said: ”This project represents a significant step toward our vision at Kinetics: delivering innovative, efficient, and sustainable infrastructure solutions that meet the energy needs of today and tomorrow.
“By pairing mobile power generation with floating data infrastructure, we are addressing critical market bottlenecks while enabling faster, cleaner and more flexible digital capacity expansion.”
Tomoaki Ichida, managing executive officer of Mitsui OSK, said the agreement represented an important step forward in leveraging the Mitsui OSK group’s assets and extensive expertise in ship operations to rapidly build digital infrastructure while minimising environmental impact.
“Moving forward, we will continue to expand a diverse range of social infrastructure businesses centred on the shipping industry,” said Ichida. “Through the advancement of our technologies and services, we are committed to proactively responding to society’s evolving needs, including the imperative of environmental conservation.”
To read the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.
