China has confirmed that underwater data centers are not science fiction, but a concrete commercial bet. The installation in Hainan is already operating commercially, while a module in Shanghai is powered by offshore wind energy. The initiative aims to reduce energy consumption and take advantage of the ocean's natural cooling.
Ocean cooling and wind energy for servers 🌊
The technical concept is simple: place servers in sealed containers on the seabed. Cold water dissipates heat more efficiently than air, reducing electricity consumption for cooling by up to 40 percent. The Shanghai module adds a layer of sustainability by combining with offshore wind turbines, generating clean energy on-site and avoiding dependence on the terrestrial power grid.
The data center that fears neither octopuses nor rust 🐙
Now we just need the octopuses not to decide to hack the cables, or the rust not to have coffee with the servers. China has shown that putting technology in water is viable, although one wonders if the next step will be installing routers on the ocean floor so fish have better WiFi signal while fleeing from sharks. At least, if something fails, we can always blame the crab that bit the fiber optic cable.