ZED ISHIKARI: Japan’s First Emission-Free Data Center Harnessing Winter Power and Renewable Energy

Emission-Free Data Center in Hokkaido, Japan

Here’s something rare: a data center in Ishikari, Japan, completed in 2024, that runs entirely on renewable energy and harnesses Hokkaido’s freezing winter air to achieve true zero emissions during operation, not just low emissions or carbon offsets.

Leveraging the Natural Environment for Cooling

The center is located on northern Hokkaido Island, where winter temperatures drop to around -5°C. Instead of fighting this cold with conventional air conditioning systems, the frigid weather is used as a natural cooling system, allowing servers to operate at high efficiency without extra energy consumption.

The Importance of Site Selection

The New Ishikari Port industrial area was carefully chosen, as it mandates 100% renewable energy operation for all facilities. This strategy ensures the data center is fully eco-friendly and reflects a forward-looking approach to building data centers that prioritize environmental sustainability over traditional carbon offsets.

Leveraging Climate and Geography in Infrastructure

What sets the ZED ISHIKARI data center apart is its unique approach to utilizing geography and climate as part of its infrastructure. From October through May, when temperatures remain consistently low, the center can operate entirely without backup air conditioning, simply by directing Hokkaido’s freezing air into the server rooms.

Natural Cooling Reduces Energy Consumption

In contrast, conventional data centers consume massive amounts of electricity to prevent servers from overheating, increasing both environmental impact and operational costs. ZED ISHIKARI, however, effectively employs a natural cooling system for more than half the year, saving significant energy and providing a sustainable operating environment for its servers.

Holistic Design as an Integrated System

The design of ZED ISHIKARI data center is based on an innovative concept: treating the entire structure as a single air-handling system, rather than installing costly, separate air ducts throughout the building.

Cold Air Flow and Heat Management

Cold air flows through strategically placed ventilation systems in the ceilings and walls, absorbing the heat emitted by the servers before being expelled again. This approach not only cools the servers efficiently, but also ensures that the extracted heat is repurposed for practical use.

Harnessing Waste Heat

The heat generated by the servers is not wasted; it is directed to systems that keep surrounding facility roads free of ice. In this way, the center elegantly addresses two challenges with a single solution: effective server cooling and the utilization of waste heat to enhance site safety.

Relying on Renewable Energy When Needed

When natural cooling is insufficient, ZED ISHIKARI is connected to a dedicated power line from nearby solar and wind farms, with each plant supplying approximately 2 megawatts of energy to the center.

Collaboration with Sustainable Energy Sources

The facility’s operator, KCCS, also partnered with a biomass power plant to ensure that every kilowatt of electricity comes entirely from renewable sources.

Intelligent Energy Management System

The data center employs a specialized electricity supply-and-demand management system, using storage batteries and AI technology to match carbon-free energy on an hourly basis. This innovation makes ZED ISHIKARI the first data center in Japan to achieve round-the-clock, carbon-free operation.

Operational and Environmental Efficiency

This approach is not only environmentally beneficial but also results in significant energy savings. Compared to the company’s data center in Tokyo, energy consumption has been reduced by approximately 40% thanks to ZED ISHIKARI’s location in a cold climate.

The Importance of Reducing Energy Consumption

These savings are not merely an operational advantage; they represent a substantial addition to the center’s economic value. Considering that data centers consume massive amounts of energy, especially with the rising demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing, finding ways to reduce energy usage is crucial to ensuring the sector’s environmental and economic sustainability.

Government Support to Accelerate the Green Transition

Japan’s Ministry of the Environment is strongly backing this model, offering support of up to 50% of the cost for building carbon-free data centers or upgrading existing facilities as part of its climate initiatives. The government recognizes that lifestyle changes and digital transformation have led to a dramatic increase in energy consumption, and data centers are among the major consumers whose usage must be carefully managed.

Relying on Practical and Existing Solutions

What sets ZED ISHIKARI apart is that it does not rely on futuristic technology or massive investments in experimental systems, but rather utilizes what is already available: cold air, wind, sunlight, and biomass energy.
The facility opened on October 1, 2024, proving that emission-free data center infrastructure is not a distant dream but a feasible reality today.

Turning Environmental Challenges into Solutions

The ZED ISHIKARI project demonstrates how thoughtful design and strategic site selection can transform environmental challenges into practical opportunities.

Servers Without a Carbon Cost

While most of us will never visit a data center, the servers powering streaming services, cloud storage, social media, and AI tools are always somewhere. Projects like ZED ISHIKARI prove that these servers do not have to come with a carbon cost, especially when the center is built in locations where winter can be harnessed as an advantage rather than an obstacle.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

ZED ISHIKARI represents an important model in exploring sustainability within data center infrastructure, particularly in leveraging the local environment to reduce energy consumption and achieve zero emissions. From a design perspective, the project demonstrates how climatic and geographic factors can be strategically used to enhance operational efficiency, offering an interesting perspective for modern infrastructure projects.

However, from a broader architectural viewpoint, the project raises several questions. While it succeeds in a cold climate like Hokkaido, replicating this model in other regions may be limited due to differing climatic and geographic conditions. Additionally, the project’s reliance on local renewable energy and advanced infrastructure may present economic and implementation challenges in environments less supportive of sustainable technologies, potentially reducing its broader applicability.

Furthermore, the project places heavy emphasis on operations and technology, while other architectural values, such as aesthetics, spatial interaction, and user experience within the building, are not highlighted, representing an area for potential development in future projects.

In conclusion, ZED ISHIKARI can be considered an important and exploratory step in integrating sustainability into architectural infrastructure. However, it remains a relatively limited model, offering valuable lessons and opportunities for improvement in future projects that aim to combine environmental efficiency with broader architectural considerations.

Prepared by the ArchUp Editorial Team

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