China has completed construction of the world’s first underwater data center powered primarily by wind. It is located off the coast of the Lingang zone in Shanghai and has become part of a program to move toward energy-efficient digital infrastructure. The facility combines offshore wind power, which supplies more than 95% of all electricity, with seawater cooling, allowing it to reduce energy consumption by 22.8% and completely eliminate the use of fresh water.
The project operates at a capacity of 2.3 MW. In the future, it is planned to be expanded to 24 MW. Its power usage effectiveness (PUE) does not exceed 1.15, which is below the national standard.
This is the first commercial example of this scale to be successfully implemented in practice. It has become part of Shanghai’s program for digital transformation and cloud technology development, which aims to achieve performance of up to 200 exaflops by 2027. Challenges include further work to ensure stable operation, combat corrosion, and minimize the impact on the marine ecosystem. But the first step has already been taken.
