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

[useapen]

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