Data center waste heat will warm a shrimp farm in Tokyo project

Why use data center waste heat for fish farming?

The heat from data centers is low-temperature, so there are few places that can use it. Land-based aquaculture has the opposite problem. Farming on land is attractive because weather and sea conditions barely affect it, so output stays stable, but holding the water at the right temperature takes energy.

The project was selected under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's program to promote the use of unused heat by startups. It is one of three projects chosen. The target is to establish a method for building such systems by March 2028.

What happens when

During fiscal 2026, the team will recover the heat, collect data on heat quantity and temperature, and evaluate which recovery methods suit aquaculture. In fiscal 2027, the recovered heat will warm the tank water and shrimp will actually be raised.

They will check that the water temperature holds, how much existing heating energy is saved, and that the data center's operation is not affected. They also want a design method that works out the right farm size for each site, since cooling systems and waste heat conditions differ from one data center to another.

Hibiya Engineering & Construction and NTT Green & Food are also in the project. NTT Docomo Business supplies the data center and assesses the impact on its equipment. NTT Green & Food monitors the rearing environment and evaluates production cost savings and business viability.

The Tokyo program covers up to 20 million yen per company per year, to a maximum of 40 million yen. The other two selected projects involve elleThermo with KDDI on heat-absorbing power generation for sensors, and Craftwork with Tokyu Construction on waste heat reuse in modular data centers under railway viaducts.