Yakutia partners prepare an energy-efficient data centre project

The Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, and Rostelecom have signed a memorandum covering preparations for a new data centre. The project intends to use the region’s cold climate to reduce the energy required for equipment cooling.

A project, not an operating facility

The announcement concerns a memorandum and preparatory work. It does not specify the planned power capacity, rack count, availability class, commissioning date, or investment. It should therefore be read as the start of a design phase rather than the launch of a finished site.

The partners will need to validate available electrical capacity, network diversity, component redundancy, spare-parts logistics, and customer demand. Those inputs will determine the site’s economics and its practical role in regional infrastructure.

What the cold climate can change

Low outside temperatures can reduce the time that compressor-based cooling must operate. Climate alone does not guarantee a low PUE, however: the result also depends on heat-exchange design, humidity control, air filtration, power architecture, and actual hall utilisation.

A transparent assessment will require seasonal PUE targets, the expected share of free-cooling hours, and a consistent method for measuring total facility energy. Heating and equipment protection during extreme temperatures must be included as well.

What future customers should verify

Energy efficiency is only one purchasing criterion. Businesses should also examine:

• diversity of long-haul network routes and line-repair times;
• power redundancy and on-site fuel reserves;
• access to engineering staff and replacement components;
• data-location and processing terms;
• emergency access and recovery procedures;
• independently demonstrated availability after commissioning.

The project may broaden the geography of Russian computing infrastructure. Its value will ultimately depend on published technical characteristics and operating evidence, not on climate advantage alone.

Source: Rostelecom’s official announcement dated 3 September 2026.