The world’s first undersea data centre has begun operating off the coast from Shanghai, powered by a direct offshore wind connection, according to China state media.
The Shanghai Lingang undersea data centre demonstration project, located 10 kms off the coast, was built by a subsidiary of China Communications Construction and combined in its construction offshore engineering, renewable energy, and an AI-focused digital infrastructure.
Chinese officials told the English-language state-run outlet China Daily that the project could serve as a potential template for next-generation computing systems.
Global data centre capacity – measured in megawatts or gigawatts to represent total continuous power available to run at maximum power – is forecast to nearly double to 200 GW by 2030, growth that is expected to require up to $US3 trillion in investment over the remainder of the decade.
Demand for data centre capacity is being driven primarily by the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, but both data centres and AI in particular are hugely power-hungry beasts.
This does not even take into consideration the physical resources that are used to supply these industries, such as raw materials for data centre components, energy usage, land use, and water for cooling.
Which is why the launch of the Shanghai Lingang undersea data centre could mark a potential sea change.
According to Chinese state media, the underwater 24 MW data centre is able to use seawater as a natural cooling source, circulating through a copper-pipe heat exchange design that reduces electricity consumption by 22.8 per cent and eliminates freshwater use entirely.
Tsinghua University Professor Li Zhen told China Daily that conventional data centres generally use around one-third of their total electricity consumption on cooling systems.
“For an undersea data center of the same scale, the electricity used for cooling would only account for about one-tenth of total power consumption,” Li said.
“If data centers of the same scale were placed underwater, even allowing extra margins, cooling consumption could fall to around 30 billion kWh. That would save about 50 billion kWh of electricity each year.”
China’s data centres currently consume around 250 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity each year, said Li, with around 80 billion kWh used specifically for cooling.
Similarly, by placing the data centre underwater, it also cuts land usage by more than 90 per cent, another problem facing local communities in proximity to land-based data centres.
Another feature of the underwater data centre is its “direct offshore wind connection” that uses electricity transmitted directly from offshore wind farms through subsea photoelectric composite cables.
Not only does this setup minimise stress on existing electricity grid infrastructure, but it also ensures data centres are powered by renewable energy.
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