China begins building underwater data center with performance equal to 6 million PCs - aims to save 122 million KWh of electricity and nearly ten soccer fields of land

Microsoft’s Project Natick in 2014 kicked off the trend of putting data 
centers in the ocean. Since then, there have been a couple of underwater 
data centers (UDCs) around the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. As reported by 
China Central Television (CCTV), China started to assemble what seems to 
be the world’s first commercial underwater data center off the coast of 
Sanya, a coastal city south of Hainan Island. According to CCTV, each data 
storage unit can process more than four million high-definition images in 
30 seconds. The estimated performance claimed to be comparable to 
approximately 60,000 regular computers operating in unison.

The companies involved installed the first data storage unit back in 
April. On Friday, a team of engineers added another data storage unit on 
the sea floor south of the Hainan province. The units house racks of 
servers, although the exact number and specifications remain a mystery.

Watertight data storage units serve as the building blocks, and the 
companies plan to install a hundred units over five years. Each data 
storage unit weighs 1,300 tons, or about the same as 1,000 cars, so 
transporting it to the bottom of the ocean isn’t easy. Not to mention that 
the module has to travel 35 meters to the bottom of the sea, so it takes 
the unit around three hours to get where it needs to be. The data storage 
unit has a longevity of 25 years, so it's built to last and withstand 
natural phenomena.

According to CCTV, each data storage unit can process more than four 
million high-definition images in 30 seconds. The estimated performance is 
comparable to approximately 60,000 regular computers operating in unison. 
You can imagine the data center's overall processing power with 100 data 
storage units, equivalent to around 6 million PCs.

The upcoming data center is gigantic, measuring up to 68,000 square meters 
or almost ten soccer fields. A soccer field measures 7,140 square meters. 
However, one of the benefits of underwater data centers is that they can 
take advantage of the generous seabed. Therefore, the data center is 
potentially saving 68,000 square meters of dry land that can be used for 
other purposes, such as housing development or industrialization.

Other significant savings included 122 million kilowatt-hours of 
electricity and 105,000 tons of freshwater annually. Submerged data 
centers can leverage the freezing seawater for natural cooling, which 
helps reduce operating costs. Furthermore, water isn't consumed in the 
process, freeing water resources for the population. Pu Ding, the general 
manager of the UDC Hainan pilot development project, asserted that the 
completed data center would be between 40% and 60% more power efficient 
than land-based data centers.

The Hainan Undersea Data Center is a joint project backed by the Sanya 
government and the Hainan Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and 
Administration Commission with companies, including Offshore Oil 
Engineering Company, Beijing Highlander Digital Technology Co., Ltd., and 
Shenzhen HiCloud in the forefront for construction, design, and 
implementation. Meanwhile, Beijing Sinnet, a leading data center and cloud 
computing provider in China, will operate the data center. The ambitious 
Hainan project was announced in Q1 2021 with an estimated completion date 
of Q2 2025. The data center will cost approximately $879 million to build.

The Hainan data center isn't the only Chinese underwater data center in 
development. A few other projects are scattered around China, including 
the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-begins-building-underwater-data-
110042143.html