With the rapid development of information technology, the demand for data has increased exponentially. As an important infrastructure for data processing and storage, the status and role of data centers have become increasingly prominent. However, traditional data centers have been unable to meet the needs of sustainable development due to issues such as high energy consumption, high carbon emissions, and land occupation. Under this background,undersea data centers emerged at the historic moment, and their unique advantages and broad prospects have attracted widespread attention.
The concept of undersea data centers was first proposed by Microsoft, which first announced its undersea data center pilot project in 2018. This project installs servers and other equipment in sealed containers on the seabed, using the natural cooling of seawater to greatly reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of the data center. Since then, submarine data centers have gradually become a research hotspot, and many domestic and foreign scientific research institutions and companies have invested in research, development and testing.
Undersea data centers have many advantages:
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Using the natural cooling of seawater can significantly reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of the data center, achieving energy conservation and environmental protection. Secondly, because it is located on the seabed, it is not easily affected by natural disasters and man-made destruction on land, and has higher safety and reliability.
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Undersea data centers can provide higher computing power and lower latency to meet growing data demands. At the same time, the characteristics of saving land and water make it an ideal choice in areas where land and water resources are tight.
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The integration with ocean clean energy such as offshore wind power enables submarine data centers to have higher energy utilization efficiency.
Undersea data centers have higher requirements for servers and storage chips:
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The server must be able to withstand the extremely high pressure and corrosive environment of the seabed, while also being salt spray and moisture-proof.
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Due to the special environment of undersea data centers, servers must have high reliability and long life to ensure data stability and security.
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For memory chips, in addition to high performance and reliability, they also need to be waterproof and dustproof to cope with the complex environmental conditions on the seabed.
The Hainan Underwater Data Center is a collaboration between the Sanya Government and the Hainan Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission in collaboration with several companies including Offshore Oil Engineering Company, Beijing Hailanxin Digital Technology Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Haiyun'an Supported projects. At the same time, Beijing Digital China, China's leading data center and cloud computing provider, will become the operator of the data center. The ambitious Hainan project was announced in the first quarter of 2021 and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025. The cost of building the data center is approximately $879 million.
Assembling the world’s first commercial underwater data center near Sanya, a coastal city on southern Hainan Island. According to CCTV reports, each data storage unit can process more than 4 million high-definition images in 30 seconds. Its performance is expected to be equivalent to approximately 60,000 ordinary computers running simultaneously.
Participating companies installed the first data storage unit in April this year. On Friday, a team of engineers added another data storage unit to the seafloor in southern Hainan province. These units house rows of servers.
Waterproof data storage units are the foundation of the build, with one hundred such units planned to be installed over five years. Each data storage unit weighs 1,300 tons, which is equivalent to the weight of about 1,000 cars, so transporting them to the seabed will not be easy. Not to mention that this modulemust dive to 35 meters of the seabed, so it will take about three hours to reach its destination. The data storage unit has a lifespan of 25 years, so it is built to last and resist natural phenomena.
The data center to be built is huge, covering an area of approximately 68,000 square meters, which is almost equivalent to ten football fields. The area of a football field is 7,140 square meters. However, one benefit of underwater data centers is the ability to take advantage of the vast ocean floor. As a result, the data center has the potential to save 68,000 square meters of land for other uses.
Other significant savings include 122 million kilowatt hours of electricity and 105,000 tons of fresh water per year. Underwater data centers can use icy seawater for natural cooling, thus reducing operating costs. Additionally, no water is consumed in the process, providing water for the population. Pu Ding, general manager of the underwater data center Hainan pilot development project, claimed that the completed data center will save 40% to 60% energy than the land data center.
As a new type of data center solution, submarine data center has broad development prospects. With the continuous advancement of technology and the continuous expansion of applications, undersea data centers are expected to play an even more important role in the future. First of all, with the development of the marine economy and the development and utilization of marine resources, submarine data centers will become an important infrastructure in the marine field. Secondly, with the frequent occurrence of global climate change and natural disasters, submarine data centers will provide reliable data protection and support to meet these challenges. In addition, with the rapid development and application of technologies such as the Internet of Things and cloud computing, undersea data centers will become an important part of future smart cities.