China Dives into the Future: The World’s First Wind-Powered Underwater Data Center
China has officially completed the first phase of construction on what it calls the world’s first underwater data center (UDC) — an ambitious project that could redefine how the world stores and powers digital information. Located in Shanghai’s Lin-gang Special Area, the $226 million (RMB 1.6 billion) facility combines wind energy and marine cooling to deliver a more sustainable model for data processing and storage.
The initiative is a major step forward in China’s national push toward carbon neutrality, energy efficiency, and digital modernization. With a total designed power capacity of 24 megawatts, the project represents not only a technological breakthrough but also a statement of intent: China is moving to lead the next generation of green computing infrastructure.
How the Underwater Data Center Works
Conventional land-based data centers are notorious for their massive energy consumption, especially for cooling. Air conditioning systems can account for nearly 50% of their total power usage, creating both environmental and financial costs.
Shanghai’s underwater data center tackles this problem by moving the servers beneath the ocean’s surface, where cold seawater acts as a natural coolant. This method drastically reduces the need for traditional air conditioning, slashing the energy demand for cooling to under 10%, according to Su Yang, general manager of Shanghai Hicloud Technology, one of the project’s key developers.
The project’s power usage effectiveness (PUE) — the industry standard for measuring energy efficiency — is designed to be 1.15 or lower. For context, a perfect score would be 1.0, meaning every watt of power goes directly to computing rather than cooling or overhead. By comparison, China’s national benchmark aims for new data centers to achieve a PUE of below 1.25 by 2025, making Lin-gang’s underwater facility one of the most efficient in the world.
Harnessing Wind and Waves for Power
Sustainability lies at the heart of the Lin-gang data center’s design. The facility sources over 95% of its electricity from offshore wind farms, tapping into the abundant wind resources of the East China Sea, which provides an estimated 3,000 hours of annual utilization.
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| The underwater data center uses seawater as a natural cooling system. Illustration: Shanghai Hailanyun Technology |
According to Huang Dinan, president of Shenergy Group, another of the project’s contractors, this approach reduces overall energy consumption by 22.8% compared to traditional centers. The use of marine-based infrastructure also cuts land use by over 90%, a crucial advantage in densely populated metropolitan regions such as Shanghai.
Moreover, by using seawater as a coolant, the facility eliminates the need for freshwater, a major environmental benefit in a world increasingly strained by resource scarcity.
A New Path in China’s Data Strategy
The Lin-gang UDC is part of China’s broader plan to expand its cloud computing capabilities while reducing environmental impact. Shanghai’s government has announced ambitions to grow the city’s cloud computing industry to RMB 200 billion ($28.25 billion) by 2027, aiming to position the city as a global hub for digital innovation.
The project also fits within — but subtly diverges from — China’s national “East Data, West Computing” strategy, launched in 2022. That megaproject aims to construct massive data centers in the country’s less-developed western regions to process data generated in the east.
By contrast, the Lin-gang underwater data center processes information closer to where it is generated, minimizing transmission delays and making use of local renewable resources. This decentralized model could complement or even redefine how China balances its national data infrastructure between energy efficiency, geography, and environmental responsibility.
Scaling Up: The 500-Megawatt Vision
The Lin-gang project’s 24-megawatt capacity is just the beginning. At the unveiling ceremony, the main contractors — including Shanghai Hicloud Technology, Shenergy Group, China Telecom’s Shanghai branch, and INESA — announced a new agreement to develop a second, larger-scale offshore data center with a staggering 500-megawatt target capacity.
Such expansion could push China to the forefront of sustainable data storage worldwide, setting benchmarks for how digital economies can grow without overwhelming the planet’s energy systems.
Challenges Beneath the Waves
Despite the optimism, experts caution that large-scale underwater data centers are still experimental. Wang Shifeng, president of Third Harbor Engineering, one of the project’s construction partners, warned that the industry remains in its infancy.
“Undersea data center construction is still in the early stage,” Wang said. “Before large-scale deployment, we must optimize operation and maintenance systems and ensure long-term technological reliability.”
Maintaining servers beneath the ocean’s surface introduces unique challenges: corrosion prevention, accessibility, and repair logistics all require novel engineering solutions. Moreover, while wind energy and ocean cooling drastically improve sustainability, both systems must withstand harsh marine conditions and long-term exposure.
Global Context: A Race for Sustainable Computing
China is not alone in experimenting with ocean-based data storage. In 2018, Microsoft’s “Project Natick” deployed an experimental underwater data center off the coast of Scotland to study similar efficiencies in cooling and power management. However, the Lin-gang project is the first to combine commercial scalability, offshore wind power, and government-backed sustainability metrics into one operational facility.
As digital demand skyrockets — driven by artificial intelligence, 5G networks, and cloud computing — nations are searching for ways to expand infrastructure without accelerating carbon emissions. Underwater data centers may offer one of the most promising answers, turning the ocean itself into a cooling and energy ally.
Conclusion: A Blueprint for the Future
China’s first underwater, wind-powered data center represents more than a technological experiment — it’s a symbol of the global pivot toward sustainable digital infrastructure.
By blending renewable energy, marine engineering, and data science, the Lin-gang project offers a vision of what future data ecosystems might look like: energy-light, space-efficient, and environmentally responsible.
If the second 500-megawatt facility becomes a reality, it could mark the beginning of a new era where the world’s data — and perhaps its digital conscience — is powered by wind and water rather than coal and heat.
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