- Ocean-cooled data centers could slash energy costs by nearly 90%
- Highlander Digital Technology is taking server cooling literally beneath the sea
- Offshore wind farms are expected to power 95% of operations sustainably
China is pushing ahead with a plan that sounds more like science fiction than infrastructure development – building underwater data centers.
The move aims to use the ocean’s natural cooling properties to reduce the immense energy required by land-based facilities.
While the idea seems efficient on paper, it raises questions about long-term feasibility, maintenance, and the practicality of keeping advanced computing systems beneath the sea.
Cooling with the currents
The move is being led by Beijing-based Highlander Digital Technology, which is preparing to deploy a new series of submerged computing pods off the coast of Shanghai.
These underwater installations are expected to cool high-performance servers using ocean currents rather than the mechanical systems that dominate conventional data centers.
The company claims this could cut cooling-related energy use by roughly 90%.
The project will serve clients, including China Telecom and a state-owned company focused on AI tools, aligning with the government’s broader push for greener infrastructure.
Earlier trials off Hainan Island reportedly showed this method could save over 122 million kWh of electricity and 105,000 tons of water annually.
Most of the energy powering the Shanghai deployment is expected to come from nearby offshore wind farms, with projections that as much as 95% of its energy will be renewable.
On the surface, it represents an important step in the global effort to reduce the carbon footprint of digital infrastructure, but the practical challenges are still difficult to ignore.
This is not China’s first experiment, nor is it a completely new concept.
Between 2013 and 2024, Microsoft conducted its own underwater trials under “Project Natick”, which involved placing sealed server pods off the coast of Scotland.
The project showed that the underwater environment could offer a lower failure rate, about one-eighth of that seen in land-based systems.
Despite these promising results, Microsoft abandoned the entire idea in 2024, likely due to the difficulties of hardware upgrades, repairs, and accessibility in such a remote setting.
While the Chinese project could mark a new phase in the evolution of data centers, experts remain cautious.
Some studies suggest that underwater systems might be susceptible to interference or even attacks using sound waves.
Others question the logistics of maintaining colocation provider services or replacing failed equipment without costly retrieval operations.
For now, China’s underwater plan shows both ambition and uncertainty – it may offer a glimpse into the next frontier of sustainable computing, or it could simply highlight the limits of what is practical when technology meets the deep sea.
Via The Register
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