American experts are very concerned about China’s commercial underwater data centers. They believe that these can become a threat to the ocean because they emit a lot of heat. This may also have a negative impact on neighboring countries like Vietnam and Philippines.
China has deployed its first commercial underwater data center in the shallow waters of the South China Sea, off the southeast coast of Hainan Island. This project has been made by a company named ‘Hylansin’. According to a report, this center is now providing data storage and computing services to internet companies working on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Big Data.
‘Hyalansin’ has also previously worked for the Chinese Navy. The company used to make smart ship systems, marine data and ocean maps.
In 2022, the US Commerce Department had blacklisted this company. The allegation was that it used American technology to create systems that could help Russia monitor submarines, divers and warships near the coast of Ukraine.
The report says that China is using the sea not only as a resource but also as a strategic weapon. That is, it is dumping the environmental damage caused by the increasing use of AI into the ocean, which is the common property of the entire world, and is also in the race to become the largest supplier of cheap AI compute.
A typical underwater data center pod consumes about 500 kilowatts to one megawatt of power. ‘Hylansin’ plans to install 100 pods, which means a total of 50 to 100 MW of energy will be used.
If 100 megawatts of heat is continuously released into the ocean, approximately ten million joules of energy goes into the water every second.
Even though it is equipped with advanced cooling systems, this much heat can raise the temperature of large areas of the surrounding sea water in a matter of hours.
The report also said that China’s environmental record for economic growth has already been weak. For example, China is the leader in the production of rare minerals, but it has caused huge environmental damage.
Thousands of square kilometers of land and lakes have been damaged and the health of the people living nearby has also been adversely affected. Extracting one ton of rare minerals produces about 2000 tons of waste and poisonous water.
Although these underwater data centers are currently located in China’s own coastal areas and at some distance from neighboring countries, the sea is not a closed system. The heat released in it gradually spreads throughout the marine system.
‘Hylansin’ says that their system increases the water temperature by a maximum of two degrees Celsius, which is under control. Critics say that it is wrong to use the ocean as a ‘free heat sink’, because it is a common property of the entire world.
According to the report, in the coming time, China may start selling cheap AI services (tokens) to the world, which will run on cheap energy and underwater infrastructure. Just like it happened earlier with solar panels and electric vehicles, people will also rapidly adopt these AI services. Even if not much attention is paid to the environmental damage they leave behind.
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