China has connected in Shanghai the first underwater data center designed to run on energy from offshore wind farmsThe facility is located off the coast of Lingang and combines digital infrastructure with offshore renewable energy generation to reduce energy consumption, water usage, and land use.
The project, located in the Lin-gang Special Area Free Trade Pilot Zone, starts with an initial operating power of 2,3 MW and is expected to reach 24 MW when completed. The total investment amounts to 1.600 million yuan (approx. $226 million), and integrates wind power production with IT demand in a coordinated manner.
Location, investment and roadmap
The Lin-gang enclave allows to take advantage of the resources of the East China Sea, where useful wind hours exceed 3.000 per year, providing a stable electricity supply with a low carbon footprint. In its first phase, the center is already in operation and has been designed with the goal of PUE ( Energy Efficiency ) not exceeding 1,15.
More than 95% of electricity will be consumed of renewable origin, prioritizing offshore wind energy. This integration makes it easier to consume generation on the coast itself, minimizing transmission losses and improving the operational stability of the underwater platform.
Regarding the expansion, the entities involved —among them Shanghai Hicloud Technology, Senergy Group, China Telecom (Shanghai), INESA and Third Harbor Engineering—have signed an agreement to promote a submarine data center program with 500 MW linked to offshore wind, which marks the leap from the demonstration phase to an industrial scale.
The initiative is part of Shanghai's local smart computing strategy, which aims to raise computing capacity to 200 EFLOPS in the coming years, and fits with national plans to distribute digital infrastructure and strengthen the efficiency of the computer network.
Efficiency, cooling and lower impact
One of the biggest changes comes with the refrigerationIn land-based centers, cooling can account for 40% to 50% of total electricity consumption; in this case, the use of seawater as a natural heat sink reduces that fraction to less than 10%, with the consequent energy savings.
The design eliminates the use of sweet water to cool the equipment and drastically reduces the need for land by moving most of the infrastructure to the seabed. According to those responsible for the project, the combination of offshore wind and submerged architecture allows for a energy savings of 22,8% compared to conventional data centers.
Regulatory standards also matter: China's 2024 policy requires large new or modernized centers to meet a PUE ≤ 1,25 by the end of 2025 (≤ 1,20 at key nodes). The Lin-gang project falls below these thresholds, consolidating a digital infrastructure approach low carbon.
Beyond efficiency, the platform is designed to support workloads of IA, networks 5G, industrial internet and e-commerce, supporting the growth of the digital economy without increasing water impact or land occupation.
The deployment, however, entails challenges: the technological maturity of submersible modules, long-distance operation and maintenance logistics, corrosion resistance, and environmental management of the marine environment. The partners involved emphasize that cost reduction and standardization will be key to scaling up to large volumes.
As a reference for other regions, this model opens the door to similar solutions where the offshore wind is consolidated, provided that technical and environmental requirements are met. Integration between renewable generation and data centers close to the energy source can relieve terrestrial networks and improve the balance between computing and sustainability.
With the first phase already active, a target of 24 MW and a framework agreement of 500 MW, the Shanghai underwater wind data center sets a precedent: combining offshore wind and ocean cooling to advance towards more efficient digital infrastructures, with less water and lower energy consumption per computing unit.
