Data centres are increasingly competing with citizens for resources, including energy or water. With the boom in resource-intensive AI, demand is increasing all the time.
The only way out of this conundrum is to power data centres sustainably, a fact acknowledged by the hyperscalers. Many data centre projects are now using natural elements to keep their systems cool, situating the facilities deep underground, high above sea level, on windy coast lines and even underwater. Below are some of the most interesting, innovative sustainable data centre projects going.
Yajiang-1 high-altitude data centres
In China, the government is working on an ambitious plan to cluster computing power and storage across the country’s less-populated western provinces, linking the new data centres to renewable energy in those regions. This is the Eastern Data, Western Computing initiative and its latest addition is Yajiang-1, a “high-altitude computing” project located in Tibet.
Described by project leaders as a “critical node” in Tibet’s plans to be a “computing Everest”, Yajiang-1 is 3,600 metres above sea level, taking advantage of the region’s natural cooling effects. It’s powered by solar energy and uses waste-heat recovery systems.
At full capacity, according to reports, the facility will reach 2,000 petaflops – the equivalent of 4 million AI training hours. It will be 40% more energy-efficient than conventional data centres, say the project leaders, reducing carbon emissions by 280,000 tonnes each year.
HiCloud Hainan underwater data centre
Developed by HiCloud, a Chinese commercial underwater data centre operator, this 1,300-tonne facility off the coast of Lingshui Li, an autonomous county on Hainan island, comprises a set of sealed computing modules nested on the sea floor. Each of the modules can host 400 high-performance servers.
Sea cables connect the modules to a nearby facility on the shore, which hosts all other subsystem equipment, such as power distribution, networking and monitoring.
Highlander, HiCloud’s parent company, had previously explored underwater data centres with a test project in Zhuhai in 2020. The successful pilot led to this expansion, built by China Offshore Oil Engineering Co, which started commercial operations in 2023.
Underwater data centres could offer superior natural cooling of the energy-intensive AI servers contained within. At least seven companies, including China Telecom and Tencent, have used the Hainan underwater project.
In recent years, Microsoft proposed similar projects, including at an underwater site near Orkney in Scotland. But these facilities did not progress beyond testing phases.
Microsoft’s timber data centres
A pair of hybrid-timber data centres in northern Virginia could produce a carbon footprint 35% smaller than the typical steel-construction hyperscale sites, and 65% smaller concrete sites.
The designs fit into Microsoft’s broader plans to decarbonise. According to Thornton Tomasetti, the structural designers, the data centres are composed of a conventional concrete foundation and steel frame, along with a metal deck floor plate – but strong yet lightweight cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and a low-carbon cement mixture are helping to offset the total carbon footprint.
CLT is used widely in low-carbon buildings across Europe but has not made inroads in the US. Microsoft said it believes the Virginia project is “one of the first hyperscale examples” of engineered wood for a US data centre.
The company added that it’s updating contracts to accelerate decarbonisation, requiring that construction firms opt for low-carbon materials and equipment.
Cloud Ring datacentres in the sky
This project for the South Korean tech giant Naver is located in a mountainous site in Sejong City, with the circular structure borrowing design cues from the Hahoe folk village heritage site.
The top of its two circular structures hovers “above the valley like a cloud”, according to the architects, Behive, while the inner ring “cascades down the valley”.
Its curvy design causes air to flow in from the surroundings to cool the servers and uses a purifying filter keeps dust and other debris at bay. The site also uses icy storage to provide further cooling, while waste heat is directed towards an on-site greenhouse.
The project follows an earlier data centre nestled at the foot of Mount Gubong in South Korea: Gak Chuncheon, designed by Kengo Kuma and DMP. This project, too, used naturally cold air from the mountain for cooling. The facility also features sunshades to block solar rays and a broad surface area that exposes it to cooling wind.
Nautilus’ floating data centre
In 2021, Nautilus Data Technologies commissioned its first – and possibly the first – floating data centre. Its unique, 10,000-square-foot Stockton1 data centre sits on a repurposed barge, which floats on the San Joaquin River, and is connected to a local land-based facility via a fibre network.
The moored barge sports technology that circulates river water through a system to keep the servers floating on the vessel cool.
However, Nautilus plans to sell the barge. Instead of operating the site, the company will focus on selling and marketing their cooling technology.
Other companies have also proposed aquatic data centres. A consortium in Japan is working on a test project powered 100% by renewable energy, including solar. In Singapore, Keppel is working on a “floating data centre park”. Such projects also aim to use the water upon which they sit for natural cooling.
Lefdal Mine
This huge complex sits in a repurposed mine that runs deep below the ground and is powered by renewable hydroelectrics, which produce no CO2 emissions. The facility is clustered around a rock cavern, with connecting passageways leading to halls and halls of data centres.
Seawater from a nearby fjord cools the site’s servers and, as a result, the facility has a Water Usage Effectiveness rating of zero – the best possible rating.
Because Lefdal was the site of a mine, the enormous 120,000-square-metre facility is easily traversable for setting up equipment. Retrofitting the mine with data centre equipment meant that constructing the site cost half as much as a new concrete data centre would have.
Sines Start Campus coastal data centres
Situated on the coast of windy Portugal, SIN01 is the first operational building in the Sines Start Campus, which will have more than 1GW of capacity by the time all its facilities are up and running.
It is powered completely by renewable energy and, like the decommissioned power station that towers in the background, uses ocean water for natural cooling.
Portugal’s location on the westernmost edge of Europe puts the campus in a useful spot for connectivity, too, easily linking up to the transatlantic sea cables through which data travels.
Data centres are increasingly competing with citizens for resources, including energy or water. With the boom in resource-intensive AI, demand is increasing all the time.
The only way out of this conundrum is to power data centres sustainably, a fact acknowledged by the hyperscalers. Many data centre projects are now using natural elements to keep their systems cool, situating the facilities deep underground, high above sea level, on windy coast lines and even underwater. Below are some of the most interesting, innovative sustainable data centre projects going.
