Underwater Data Center: China’s Energy-Efficient Solution
Here’s a summary of the key points from the article about China’s underwater data centers:
* China is actively pursuing underwater data centers: Highlander, a company, is preparing to launch a commercial underwater data center in Shanghai in October, with China Telecom as a first customer. This will be China’s second underwater data center (the first is in Hainan, still active).
* Focus on reducing carbon footprint: the primary motivation is to reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of data centers, notably those powering AI applications.Cooling is a major energy drain for customary data centers.
* Critically important cooling cost reduction: Underwater cooling is expected to reduce cooling energy consumption by approximately 90%. Highlander also aims to power 95% of its operations with renewable energy.
* Challenges in construction: Building underwater data centers presents significant engineering and construction hurdles.
* Microsoft’s experience: Microsoft previously experimented with an underwater data center off the coast of Scotland but ultimately decided not to pursue commercial deployment, despite learning valuable lessons.
* Land and energy savings: The article mentions the potential to save land (nearly ten soccer fields) and electricity (122 million kWh) with this technology.