A recent piece of good news is the advancement of a Taiwanese company into Kyushu. Thanks to this semiconductor factory, the local economy is regaining vitality. I hope to create a similarly vibrant situation throughout Japan. Data centers are expected to be the vanguard of regional revitalization. It seems that data center construction is beginning to move north. A lot of electricity is consumed to operate computers in a data center. At the same time, an equal amount of electricity is consumed to cool the computers. The amount of data is increasing at an accelerating rate. The move north is aimed at using natural cooling to cool data centers and reduce power consumption. If the computer reaches 50°C, the server will shut down. Therefore, it is necessary to keep it at around 20°C. They are moving to the north in search of cool outside air.
With the recent shift to cloud computing, there has been a move to consolidate data centers into highly efficient large-scale data centers. In Japan, the area that is the receptacle of this is Hokkaido. Hokkaido has renewable energy resources that are yet to be developed. Interesting things will happen if we build tomato and melon plant factories, salmon and amaebi land farms, and insect farms in accordance with the proposed sites for data centers. For example, if we could freely use 20°C hot water in Hokkaido, we could produce a lot of crops. It would be a good business if we could supply crops such as melons, tomatoes, and strawberries to the metropolitan area using railways and ferries. Of course, we will also grow seafood such as amaebi. The hot water used to grow shrimp will be used in the plant factory. The shrimp waste will be set up to become fertilizer. In addition, the insect factory that uses waste heat will produce fertilizer for the plant factory and feed for the farm. A closed system that does not disturb the ecosystem will be completed.
In addition, we will come up with a mechanism to attract companies. The local government will provide land free of charge to companies that build data centers. Usage fees and taxes will be waived for 10 years. In exchange, the condition will be that waste heat will be supplied to plant factories, fish farms, etc. Hokkaido’s harsh cold encourages industries such as IT companies, agriculture, and fishing. If industries become more active, local governments will receive more tax revenue. Municipalities with this kind of thinking may become the vanguard of regional revitalization and build wealthy regions.
