The maritime equipment company Highlander plans to launch this capsule, developed in collaboration with state-supported construction companies, into the water in mid-October. The company’s goal is to both save energy and reduce its carbon footprint.
Cooling with 90 percent less energy
Highlander Vice President Yang Ye said, “Subsea facilities consume approximately 90 percent less energy for cooling compared to land-based data centers.”
Under the project, the servers will be naturally cooled by ocean currents. This will eliminate the need for the energy-intensive air conditioning systems used on land. It is known that Microsoft conducted a similar trial off the coast of Scotland in 2018, but China’s initiative will be one of the first to operate on a commercial scale.
The facility’s customers include China Telecom and a state-supported artificial intelligence computing company. Highlander also announced that it received 40 million yuan (approximately 5.6 million dollars) in state support for a similar project in the Hainan region in 2022.
