World’s first wind-powered underwater data center starts operating in China, and it uses much less power and water than its land-based counterpart

The world of data infrastructure is shifting beneath the waves, and it is honestly a massive leap forward for sustainable tech. We have seen the very first wind-powered underwater data center officially start operations off the coast of Shanghai, The Guardian reported.

This project, which launched in May, is a direct response to the massive energy demands triggered by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. It is a joint effort between HiCloud Technology and China Communications Construction, and it is already showing us how we might solve some of the biggest environmental headaches associated with modern computing.

The facility is located more than 6 miles off the coast of Shanghai and sits submerged 10 metres below the water surface. What makes this setup truly impressive is that it is powered by a nearby offshore wind farm. If you look at the coast of Lingang, which is a major hi-tech, free-trade zone in eastern Shanghai, you can actually see the wind turbines from the shore. Because the facility is submerged, it takes advantage of the natural cooling effect of the seawater, compared to land-based data centers, which have to spend an incredible amount of energy just to stay cool.

This is a game-changer for the world of technology

In a typical data center on land, you can expect anywhere between 25% and 40% of the total electricity demand to go toward pumping chilled water around servers to stop them from overheating. That is a massive amount of wasted energy.

By moving these facilities underwater, the natural environment does the heavy lifting. According to the Chinese government, this new underwater data center reduces power consumption by more than one-fifth compared to its land-based counterparts. On top of that, it drastically cuts down on the need for freshwater supplies, which is a huge deal for sustainability.

The strain on freshwater is a growing concern globally. The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health recently warned that the water footprint of data centers could reach 9.3tn litres by 2030. That is enough water to cover the annual domestic needs for all 1.3 billion people living in sub-Saharan Africa. Moving these facilities to the ocean is a smart way to bypass that resource drain.

While there are some valid concerns about the impact on marine ecosystems, such as the potential for heating the water or disturbing sediments, experts like Prof Rick Stafford of Bournemouth University believe these risks are manageable with proper monitoring. He noted that while there will be some localised elevated temperatures, they will not be far-reaching.

This isn’t the first time we have seen experiments with underwater data centers. Microsoft famously launched a pilot project in 2018 in the waters around Orkney in Scotland. That project, known as Project Natick, was a brilliant proof of concept. The team deployed a shipping-container-sized unit 117 feet deep to the seafloor and tested it for two years.

They discovered that the servers were actually eight times more reliable underwater than they were on land. They hypothesized that the nitrogen-filled atmosphere, combined with the lack of human interference, prevented the corrosion and physical damage that usually causes hardware failure.

While Microsoft proved the concept worked, China has pushed forward with commercial deployment at a faster pace. Dr Hanjiang Dong of Hong Kong Polytechnic University pointed out that China was able to bring together market demand, industrial capability, marine engineering, and policy support to make this a reality. The Shanghai project received 1.6bn yuan of investment, which is roughly £177m. This aligns with China’s broader AI action plan released last year, which calls for faster construction of data infrastructure and a significant increase in clean energy supplies for AI by 2030.

It is interesting to see how the lessons from earlier experiments are being integrated into these new projects. The ability to deploy these units quickly and keep them running without human touch is essentially the dream for cloud and edge computing.

As we continue to populate the globe with more edge devices, having self-contained, highly reliable data centers located closer to coastal populations, where more than half the world’s population lives, makes a lot of sense. It leads to faster web surfing, smoother video streaming, and better performance for gamers.