Underwater Datacentre Powered by Offshore Wind Farm Begins Operations Off Shanghai

An underwater datacentre powered by an offshore wind farm has begun operations off the coast of Shanghai. The Shanghai Lingang undersea datacentre demonstration project launched in May with a capacity of 24 megawatts. The facility sits more than 6 miles (10 km) offshore and 10 metres below the surface.

It draws electricity from a nearby offshore wind farm visible from Lingang, a hi-tech free-trade zone that also hosts a Tesla gigafactory. The project is a joint effort between HiCloud Technology and China Communications Construction, a state-owned company, and received 6 billion yuan (£177 million) in investment.

According to the Chinese government, the datacentre reduces power consumption by more than one-fifth compared with land-based facilities.

In traditional centres, 25 percent to 40 percent of electricity demand comes from cooling servers. Submersion in seawater provides natural cooling and eliminates the need for freshwater supplies. HiCloud launched the world’s first commercial underwater datacentre in Hainan in 2023.

The Shanghai project is the first to combine underwater placement with offshore wind power. China released an AI action plan last year that called for faster datacentre construction, and the government has pledged to increase clean-energy supplies for AI infrastructure by 2030.

Microsoft launched a pilot underwater datacentre near Orkney, Scotland, in 2018 and reported promising results two years later, though further progress there has stalled.

Dr Hanjiang Dong of Hong Kong Polytechnic University said Microsoft proved the concept earlier, while China advanced commercial deployment by combining market demand, industrial capability, marine engineering and policy support. Underwater datacentres reduce freshwater demand but can disturb sediments or raise local seawater temperatures.