Kinetics, MOL to develop "floating data centre"

Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kinetics, an energy company under Turkish floating power specialist Karpowership, to jointly develop a "floating data centre" platform.

Under the MOU, the two companies will collaborate on the design, construction and deployment of a data centre hosted on a retrofitted vessel.

The facility will be supplied with uninterrupted, dedicated power from a range of sources as well as options to integrate land-based grids, onshore solar farms, offshore wind, or other power generation solutions depending on project location and client requirements.

MOL said the floating platform will offer a scalable, mobile, and rapidly deployable alternative to traditional land-based data centres, thus overcoming the challenges of power constraints, land scarcity, and permitting delays.

The data centre will be installed on a vessel with a hull length of 120 metres and a gross tonnage of 9,731. The centre will have a capacity of 20 to 73 MW, which can be further expanded depending on the module configuration.

Conversion works on the vessel will begin in 2026 and the data centre is scheduled to be operational by 2027.