World’s first underwater data centre is now online, powered by wind

Just over seven months from completing phase one of this mega-project, Chinese engineers have finished the build and switched on the world’s first underwater data centre (UDC) powered by offshore wind turbines. What’s more, it doesn’t need freshwater and cuts land use by more than 90% compared with above-ground centres.

Data centres don’t need freshwater to function – but it remains the simplest cooling option, as it puts fewer demands on surrounding infrastructure, thanks to its lower levels of salts, minerals and biological impurities that can corrode pipes or reduce cooling efficiency over time. Unlike many inland facilities that still rely on freshwater, UDCs instead use the surrounding ocean as a heat sink, transferring this heat through sealed cooling systems.

This centre, built by a subsidiary of China Communications Construction, uses a circulating copper-pipe heat exchange system that reportedly reduces electricity consumption by 22.8%. Offshore wind farms are also estimated to generate 95% of the electricity needed to run its 192 server racks across four levels, significantly reducing reliance on existing power infrastructure.

“For an undersea data centre of the same scale, the electricity used for cooling would only account for about one-tenth of total power consumption,” Tsinghua University Professor Li Zhen told China Daily. “If data centers of the same scale were placed underwater, even allowing extra margins, cooling consumption could fall to around 30-billion kW. That would save about 50 billion kWh of electricity each year.”