The data storage facility, which China has placed on the seabed near Hainan Island, will be 40 to 60 percent more energy efficient than onshore data centers when completed.
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| The data storage is located 35 meters below sea level. |
It took engineers nearly three hours to lower the 1,300-ton vault 35 meters below the surface. The entire project will include 100 such vaults.
Putting data centers at sea could have multiple energy benefits. The centers could use seawater to cool electronic components, reducing air conditioning costs.
“The entire data center can cool itself completely naturally,” said Xie Qian, a senior engineer at CTTL Terminals, part of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). “Water cooling technology will also help increase server density and increase computing power.”
Additionally, underwater data centers will take advantage of the vast space of the seabed to reduce land costs. They are also located farther from human habitats and are less likely to encounter interference.
While companies like Microsoft have experimented with underwater data centers and claim the idea is feasible, so far only the Chinese version is expected to go into commercial operation and serve customers in the near future.
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