- Ocean-cooled data centers could reduce energy costs by nearly 90%
- Highlander Digital Technology is taking server cooling literally under the sea
- Offshore wind farms expected to power 95% of operations sustainably
China is moving ahead with a plan that sounds more like science fiction than infrastructure development: building underwater data centers.
The move aims to use the natural cooling properties of the ocean to reduce the immense energy required by land-based facilities.
While the idea seems efficient on paper, it raises questions about long-term viability, maintenance, and the feasibility of maintaining advanced computing systems under the sea.
Cooling with currents
The move is led by Beijing-based Highlander Digital Technology, which is preparing to deploy a new series of submerged computing modules off the coast of Shanghai.
These underwater facilities are expected to cool high-performance servers using ocean currents instead of the mechanical systems that dominate conventional data centers.
The company claims this could reduce cooling-related energy use by approximately 90%.
The project will serve clients including China Telecom and a state-owned company focused on artificial intelligence tools, aligning with the government’s broader push for greener infrastructure.
Previous trials on Hainan Island reportedly showed that this method could save more than 122 million kWh of electricity and 105,000 tons of water annually.
Most of the energy that will power the Shanghai deployment is expected to come from nearby offshore wind farms, with projections that up to 95% of their energy will be renewable.
At first glance, 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 testing under “Project Natick,” which involved placing sealed server modules off the coast of Scotland.
The project demonstrated that the underwater environment could offer a lower failure rate, approximately one-eighth of that seen in terrestrial systems.
Despite these promising results, Microsoft abandoned the entire idea in 2024, likely due to hardware upgrade, repair, and accessibility difficulties in such a remote environment.
While the Chinese project could mark a new phase in the evolution of data centers, experts remain cautious.
Some studies suggest that underwater systems could be susceptible to jamming or even attack using sound waves.
Others question the logistics of maintaining the services of colocation providers or replacing broken equipment without costly recovery operations.
For now, China’s undersea 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’s practical when technology meets the deep sea.
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