- China’s underwater information heart merges deep-sea cooling with renewable wind power
- The Lin-gang venture delivers 2.3 megawatts in its first operational section
- Natural ocean cooling replaces typical chillers in new China information heart
China’s experiment in submerging digital infrastructure beneath the ocean has now moved from idea to business actuality.
The Lin-gang Special Area in Shanghai has change into dwelling to what the nation calls the world’s first underwater information heart.
The $226 million venture combines renewable power with deep water cooling to enhance effectivity and sustainability.
A brand new section in information infrastructure
The first stage of the Lin-gang facility is operational and producing 2.3 megawatts of capability, and builders say the complete construct will ultimately attain 24 megawatts.
This outcome would put it effectively forward of microsoft’s Project Natick, which was primarily an experimental effort and was deserted in 2024.
The 35m-deep subsea facility is supported by main state-backed entities together with Shenergy, China Telecom’s Shanghai department and CCCC Third Harbor Engineering.
Its operator, Shanghai Hicloud, has already outlined a imaginative and prescient for a a lot bigger growth of 500 megawatts into marine environments.
From a technical perspective, the tactic is simple: servers are enclosed in watertight capsules and positioned on the seabed.
The pure properties of the ocean act as a cooling medium, eliminating the necessity for typical chillers.
The firm claims this configuration achieves an influence utilization effectiveness of lower than 1.15, an enchancment over each China’s present effectivity benchmark and plenty of terrestrial hyperscale amenities.
Proponents of the venture argue that the subsea method reduces power demand for cooling whereas permitting near-total reliance on renewable sources.
The builders estimate that round 95% of the ability’s electrical energy will come from offshore wind, eliminating the necessity for grid energy or recent water.
If the numbers maintain up, the location may mark actual progress in the direction of sustainable low-impact computing.
However, there are clear limitations. Microsoft’s previous expertise exhibits that there are sensible drawbacks when sustaining, updating, and changing parts.
Since every capsule is pressurized, sealed, and coated to withstand corrosion, as soon as submerged, entry turns into costly and time-consuming.
Lin-gang promoters preserve that marine and thermal impacts stay inside acceptable limits, however impartial verification remains to be pending.
As with Microsoft’s earlier enterprise, the query isn’t whether or not the system can work, however whether or not it could achieve this sustainably and profitably.
If the outcomes align with preliminary projections, China’s method may affect how international firms deploy AI instruments and handle data-intensive workloads at scale.
Through Tom Hardware