Highlander completes first underwater facility and looks to develop net-zero wind-powered data center

According to a report by ChinaDaily, Highlander, one of the companies driving innovation in the underwater data center space, has announced that work on its first commercial facility is complete, for which it is now looking for export buyers. Further to this announcement, the company has outlined that it will be building a net-zero data center that is to be powered by offshore wind power, in Shanghai and Hainan.

The company reportedly finished work on the underwater data center in December and is currently undergoing preparatory work for live loads; such facilities are capable of saving around 30,000 cubic meters of water each year, when compared with regular IDCs. These kinds of facilities have also been incorporated into various Chinese regions' five-year plans.

Speaking about the advantages of utilizing underwater data centers, Pu Ding, general manager of the UDC Hainan pilot development project at Shenzhen HiCloud Data Center Technology, a unit of Highlander, told China Daily: "In seawater with relatively low temperatures, the challenge to reduce the power usage effectiveness [PUE - the ratio of the total amount of energy used to the energy delivered to computing equipment] of an underwater data center is actually not that great." Ding explained that the challenge is achieving low PUE in high-temperature natural conditions, such as in tropical and subtropical sea regions." Further, Ding highlighted that the first project in Hainan, which is a major Chinese tropical island, demonstrates that the company chose "hard mode" from the beginning, to demonstrate the company's resolution to "face the most challenging situations and tackle relevant technical problems when designing a UDC."

Pu outlined that at the core of the design is reliability and affordability: "Mainstream subsea equipment in the global market is generally designed to be used more than one kilometer below sea level. However, UDCs are designed to be deployed less than 50 meters below the water's surface. Otherwise, it would be too far away from inland infrastructure and its transmission and reception efficiency will be compromised."

Adding: "Deepwater facilities can of course serve UDC needs. Actually, they far exceed relevant requirements. It would therefore be a waste to use them in building a UDC because deepwater facilities are much more expensive than those for shallow water." Subsequently, by redesigning them for shallow water and developing a full production chain of shallow-water facilities, it has reduced the cost of UDCs by 80 percent.  

"We are confident in providing global consumers with high-end and, at the same time, economical UDC solutions," Pu added.