(SeaPRwire) –   BEIJING, May 9, 2026 — A news report from China.org.cn on Shanghai Lin-gang Underwater Data Center:

Off the east coast of Nanhuizui in Shanghai stands a 32-meter-tall steel cylinder operating steadily. For local residents and workers, every short video they scroll through, every online ride-hailing service they book, and every cross-border payment they make is processed right here, with nearly zero network latency.

This is not a movie set for a sci-fi film, but the Shanghai Lin-gang Underwater Data Center (UDC) — the world’s first wind-powered underwater data center, which recently began official operations.

Data centers are essentially “super warehouses” in the digital world. All data generated by our daily digital activities is stored and processed within them, and their operations rely entirely on electricity.

Using an offshore wind-power direct-supply model, the Shanghai Lin-gang UDC shares the same sea area with an offshore wind farm, enabling wind power to be delivered directly to the data center via a dedicated cable, much like constructing a house next to a power station. This eliminates long-distance transmission, significantly reducing energy losses and operational costs. Thanks to this approach, the green power direct supply rate for the data center exceeds 95%.

Moreover, traditional onshore data centers depend on vast amounts of freshwater and complex refrigeration systems to cool servers. This means that out of every 10 yuan spent on electricity, three to four yuan are used solely for cooling rather than computing. In contrast, this UDC utilizes seawater with an average annual temperature of 15℃ as a natural cooling system, saving substantial amounts of electricity and freshwater.

Power Usage Effectiveness, or PUE, is a key international metric for assessing data center energy efficiency, with a theoretical minimum of 1.0, indicating that every unit of electricity powers IT equipment such as servers. By integrating offshore wind power and natural seawater cooling technologies, the PUE of the Shanghai Lin-gang UDC has already fallen below 1.15, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 12,000 tons annually.

A new path toward green development that combines computing capacity expansion with electricity infrastructure is emerging across China.

With the rapid advancement of AI, the number and scale of global data centers continue to grow, driving a sharp increase in energy consumption. The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2030, electricity used for AI-related computing will account for more than half of the power demand from newly built data centers. As a result, developing greener, low-carbon computing power has become an essential choice.

Well before 2019, China initiated pilot projects for green data centers; in 2021, the national “East Data, West Computing” strategy was officially launched. Large volumes of data generated in China’s densely populated eastern regions were redirected to western China, where abundant wind, solar, and hydropower resources support low-carbon computing, promoting both growth in computing power and environmental sustainability. In 2023, China first introduced the concept of aligning computing power development with electricity generation, emphasizing the construction of computing hubs near end users to further boost computing efficiency and reduce energy loss. The Shanghai Lin-gang UDC exemplifies this commitment, representing a successful outcome of China’s sustained efforts to advance green computing power.

It is important to note that deploying a data center underwater is a project with few mature global precedents. China’s solution pioneers a coordinated approach to building offshore green energy and undersea computing infrastructure. It features an innovative cylindrical “data warehouse” designed to withstand wave forces and incorporates specialized anti-corrosion coatings to resist seawater degradation. This initiative reflects China’s strong determination to reduce carbon emissions while offering the world innovative solutions for the green transformation of data centers.

Along the shores of the East China Sea, this “Deep Blue Core” endures the currents, revealing within it the future vision of green computing power—crafted by Lin-gang, Shanghai, and shared with the world.

“Embed” data centers deep in the sea for greener computing power
http://www.china.org.cn/video/2026-05/09/content_118485052.shtml 
China Mosaic
http://chinamosaic.china.com.cn/

 

SOURCE China.org.cn