The world’s first commercial underwater data centre is now operational in Hainan, an island province of China and the nation’s southernmost point.
Hainan is leading a push to attract foreign investment by expanding the blue (or marine) economy in the country’s largest pilot free-trade zone. Hence, the need for servers, which manage a wide range of digital services – from restaurant recommendations to travel hacks, according to the South China Morning Post.
However, these servers are slighly different from most others. The facility, managed by Shenzhen HiCloud Data Centre Technology, houses servers in a 1,300-ton data cabin located 35 metres underwater. Each cabin contains 24 server racks capable of hosting 400 to 500 servers.
It's not the only example of underwater data centres in the country, however. According to the Science Alert website, maritime equipment firm Highlander, which has also worked in Hainan, is planning to submerge a pod of servers in the sea off Shanghai with help from some state-owned construction companies.
Data centres under the sea can reduce energy consumption needed for cooling, helping to lower operational costs. Undersea servers are kept at a low temperature by ocean currents, rather than the energy-intensive air cooling or water evaporation that data centres would require on land, although there are challenges, such as keeping the facility’s contents dry and safe from corrosion by salt water and allowing maintenance crews access. There may also be an impact on marine ecosystems, notably from heat emitted by the data centres.
Attempts to submerge data centres have been going on for some while. As long ago as 2021 we reported that both Highlander and Microsoft had already trialled the concept.
