undersea Archives - usatoday24

China has just launched its first undersea data center with total energy autonomy. The idea makes more sense than it seems

April 11, 2026 by usatoday24

In the AI race, having a robust data center infrastructure to power it is essential, but first you need energy to power it all. The United States may lead the chip industry (at least, the strategic ones), but China follows closely at an unstoppable pace and furthermore, has the energy. And he is already beginning to connect the dots, showing off his technical power and ingenuity: already It has the largest data center in the worldis also a pioneer to submerge them under the sea. Now it has taken a twist with the first underwater data center that ‘drinks’ directly from the wind that just opened. This project represents the perfect union of two of China’s strategic priorities: digital sovereignty and carbon neutrality. By placing computing infrastructure on the seabed and powering it directly with clean energy on siteChina is solving one of the great current technological problems: the insatiable energy consumption of AI and Big Data. The project. About 10 kilometers off the coast of Shanghai, at the bottom of the East China Sea, a steel cylinder receives electricity directly from wind turbines and is cooled with sea water. It is the Lingang Subsea Data Centeran ambitious project promoted by Shanghai Hailan Cloud Technology (HiCloud) and built by CCCC Third Harbor Engineering. It consists of a series of data storage and processing modules encapsulated in watertight and submerged containers, which are connected via two 35 kV submarine cables to offshore wind turbines operating off the coast of Shanghai. With a planned capacity of 24 MW in two phases, the first is already operational: it has a capacity of 2.3 megawatts and includes a ground control center, a vertical data module installed under the sea and two main 35 kilovolt submarine cables. Why it is important. In addition to the fact that it does not occupy land, in cities as crowded as Shanghai it represents a valuable saving in land and that it can be installed close to where it is needed (if there is a coast, obviously), because it solves at the same time three structural problems of the sector: Refrigeration. Seawater acts as a constant and free heat sink, eliminating the need for industrial air conditioning systems that consume 40 to 50% of electricity. The metric that measures the energy efficiency of a data center by comparing the total energy consumed versus that used purely by the servers is the PUE, which for a standard data center on land is an average slightly higher than 1.5. The project promises to lower it to a figure not greater than 1.15. Without consumption of fresh water. Traditional data centers evaporate millions of liters of water to cool their servers, but this uses thermal exchange with the ocean, so it does not consume water resources. Take advantage of the surplus from wind power. One of the handicaps of wind energy is that generation depends on the wind and not on demand, so if you do not have a battery, the energy that is not consumed is wasted. Thanks to this direct connection, the data center absorbs wind production in real time, functioning as a constant consumer that reduces the waste of renewable energy due to lack of destination, In figures. The magnitude of the project, with some official numbers: The budget is 1.6 billion yuan, about 200 million euros. Total planned operational capacity of 24 MW (2.3 MW in the first phase). The design PUE is less than 1.15. More than 95 percent of electricity comes from renewable sources. Context. The name of HiCloud is not new because in fact it is an old acquaintance: it is the person behind the underwater prototype in front of Hainan which began to install in 2021. However, the international reference is the Natick project from Microsoft (2013–2024), which demonstrated the potential of underwater centers: only 8 of the 864 servers failed, a much lower mortality rate than that of any conventional data center in the same period and also got a very low PUE of only 1.07. Despite this, Microsoft shelved the matter: viability in terms of costs and maintenance is another story. However, the Lingang project has top-level institutional support: is present on the List of Green and Low Carbon Technology Demonstration Projects of the NDRC, China’s top economic planning body. How they have done it. Servers are placed in pressurized steel cabins filled with inert gases to prevent corrosion and fire with a design that maximizes interior space and minimizes the impact of waves. Heat is dissipated by pumping seawater through radiators located behind the racks. The most complicated operation was raising the cabin in the open sea: the separation between the legs of the support structure and the steel piles on the seabed was only 0.18 meters and the maximum allowable deviation was 10 centimeters, so GPS and the Sanhang Fengfan crane vessel were helped. Roadmap. The project follows a staggered progression that leaves certain unknowns. First was the prototype in Hainan (2021-2024). In 2025 the project began in Shanghai, whose phase 1 concluded in October of that year and it has just been launched a few weeks ago. The key phase that will take capacity up to 24 MW has no official public date. Of course, the consortium of companies made up of HiCloud, Shenergy Group, China Telecom Shanghai, INESA and CCCC Third Harbor Engineering signed a cooperation agreement in October 2025 to scale to 500 MW linked to offshore wind, although where and when is unknown. Yes, but. That 2.3 MW of phase 1 is practically a demonstration, not commercial infrastructure as a large conventional data center operates between 50 and 500 MW. And in addition, it has to resolve the issues that Microsoft’s Project Natick left unresolved, such as underwater maintenance: HiCloud has not published protocols or long-term repair costs. And scalability to 500 MW is at the moment more of an intention than a project In Xataka | Where you see a mountain, China sees a … Read more

swapping hordes of tourists for undersea cables

November 5, 2025 by usatoday24

If the capitals of the countries are the cornerstone on which their economies revolve, in Portugal there is not much debate, although there is a certain amount of boredom. Years ago, Lisbon set out to be a tourist capital, and this summer it has been confirmed that it has become the biggest tourist hell of Europe with the price of housing shot while the urban center lost a good part of its population. But Portugal has a simple but difficult plan to execute: exchange submarine cables for tourists. The new horizon. Sinesa seemingly modest coastal municipality, is once again at the center of Portugal’s strategic ambitions. After decades in which tourism became the country’s main economic engine (representing almost a quarter of GDP) the Portuguese government is now seeking to rebalance its production model attracted by an opportunity that mixes geography and technology. As? Sines is the point where they land and take off submarine cables that connect Europe with America and Africaand that will soon also link with the United States through of one line from Google to South Carolina. Portugal as a data center. This combination of global connectivity, available space and energy infrastructure has promoted the development of projects such as a mega data center 8.5 billion eurosa battery factory of 2,000 million and the expansion of the deep-sea port managed by the Port Authority of Singapore, investments equivalent to 4.6% of GDP of the country that could generate more than 5,000 jobs. For Lisbon, Sines is not an experiment, but the link that could transform the Portuguese economy into an Atlantic logistics and technological platform. The Google cable that will connect the US with Portugal and the rest of Europe Ambitions interrupted. However, the municipality carries a legacy of promises that were not kept. In the 70s, the authoritarian regime tried to convert it in the industrial hub of the country, building a commercial port, a refinery and an energy plant with the expectation of processing fuels from the Portuguese colonial empire. After the Revolution of 1974 and the loss of the colonies, the project deflated: the port was underutilized, the refinery survived with difficulty and the power plant ended closing in 2021 due to the cheaper renewable energy. The region grew up expecting a boom that never materialized and many of the newcomers ended up leaving. That memory weighs heavily today on the minds of its inhabitants, who observe this new wave of investments with a mixture of excitement and caution. Pressure. Bloomberg counted that the arrival of thousands of workers linked to the construction of new data centers, factories and port expansions is straining the urban fabric of a city that remains small and with limited services. The housing supply is insufficient, some workers sleep in cars and residential projects are advancing slowly due to lack of financing. Basic services (schools, health centers, municipal infrastructure) show signs of saturation. This mismatch between investment and life support fuels the fundamental doubt: whether Sines This time it will be a city that retains wealth or if, as in the past, the activity will arrive, the works will be completed and the value generated will once again go to other regions and companies. Start Sines Campus Logistics hub. As we said, the port of sines occupies a strategic position between Europe, Africa and America, and its expansion seeks to go from being a transshipment point between ships to becoming a port that introduces goods towards the interior of the peninsula. But this transition requires rapid connections with Spain and central Europe, and the road corridor to the border It is incomplete and does not exist a passenger rail connection, while freight transport is slow. Solution? The government is studying improvements that would cut up to three hours logistics routes to Spain, which would allow it to compete with ports such as Valencia or Algeciras. Transport infrastructure is therefore the real turning point: without it, Sines will remain a peripheral port, but with it, it could become one of the central pieces of European Atlantic trade. Technology, energy and capital. The new projects in Sines are marked by international investment. The data center Start Campus operates with renewable energy and has secured 1.2 gigawatts (a capacity comparable to Lisbon’s consumption) by reusing cooling systems from the old thermal power plant using seawater. The CALB battery plant, partially controlled by Chinese capital, will receive up to 350 million euros in public support and aims to produce batteries for 200,000 electric vehicles per year by 2028. The combination of available clean energy, seawater for cooling, physical space and direct access to submarine cables makes Sines a privileged node in a world where digital infrastructure weighs as much as industrial infrastructure. The great opportunity. For many inhabitants, this transformation may be the opportunity that never camebut for others, it is a new cycle in which large companies will take center stage and the local community will be left out. The difference between one result and another will depend on three levers: accessible housing, infrastructure that connects Sines with the rest of the country and the State’s ability to capture and redistribute the value generated. Thus, what is at stake is not only the future of a coastal citybut the Portuguese economic model as a whole: if the municipality goes from being a tourist landscape and a transit port to becoming a European technological and logistical node, the country could leave behind decades of dependence on tourism as an economic monoculture On the other hand, if he doesn’t, Sines will once again be a symbol of unfulfilled promises. Image | Kalboz, MaritimeGoogle In Xataka | Years ago, Lisbon set out to be a tourist capital. Now it has become the biggest tourist hell in Europe In Xataka | If the question is “can a country sustain itself with renewable energy alone”, the answer is right here: Portugal

A UK nuclear submarine caught a Russian ship in front of the nation’s undersea cables. It’s the second time in three months

January 23, 2025 by usatoday24

If yesterday Taiwan was the nation that suffered a new cut of submarine cablestoday the tension moves to Europe, to be more exact, to British waters. A few hours ago it was known, through the UK governmentabout events that occurred last fall with a mysterious Russian ship called Yantar. The problem is that it has reappeared in the vicinity of the nation’s underwater communication channels, and this time it has been “escorted” by a Royal Navy nuclear submarine. Recent raids. The UK has raised its voice about what appears to be a growing threat of aggression from Russia following the recent Yantar spy ship raid in British waters for the second time in just three months, which has been interpreted as an attempt by the Kremlin to evaluate the country’s defense capabilities. According to British Defense Secretary John Healey, a nuclear submarine and two Royal Navy ships were deployed for two days to monitor the activity of the Yantar, described as a vessel designed for intelligence gathering and mapping of critical underwater infrastructureincluding telecommunications and power cables connecting the UK to mainland Europe. This incursion, furthermore, occurs in that context of growing concern over the security of key infrastructure in Europe that we have been talking about, and at a time when Western intelligence services have warned about Russia’s intention to use sabotage as a tool of pressure after the war in Ukraine. The Yantar and its history. The Yantar had previously been detected in November 2024when it was observed to remain over areas of strategic submarine infrastructure of the United Kingdom. On that occasion, Healey authorized a Royal Navy nuclear submarine to surface near the Russian ship, sending a clear message that its movements were being closely monitored. During the raid, The Yantar was also escorted by the Russian frigate Admiral Golovko and the tanker Vyazmawho left the area after the British response. Russian ship capabilities. The Yantar, operated by the Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research of the Russian Navy and “officially” a project 22010 oceanographic research vessel, is a ship specifically designed for the collection of information on underwater infrastructure. It is equipped with autonomous submersibles capable of operating at depths of up to 5,500 metersallowing you to identify, map and even manipulate submarine cables essential for Europe’s connectivity and energy supply. In this regard, and although its capabilities could allow acts of sabotage, security experts, such as Justin Crump of the intelligence firm Sibylline, point out that the main purpose of the vessel appears to be aimed at collecting sensitive information for future strategic operations, rather than direct action. Concern about Russian sabotage. There is no doubt that Yantar’s activities have generated concern in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe, especially after recent incidents in the Baltic Sea, where underwater energy and telecommunications cables were found cut in what have been suspected to be deliberate acts. of sabotage, unconfirmed acts and that, as we told yesterdayofficial investigations point to other types of problems derived from inexperience. Be that as it may, what is certain is that NATO has responded by intensifying its presence in the region with operation Baltic Sentrydeploying warships, air patrols and drones to protect critical underwater infrastructure. What the United Kingdom says. After what happened for the second time, the British Defense Secretary has emphasized that Russia represents the most immediate and significant threat to the United Kingdomand has reiterated the country’s commitment to taking firm measures to protect its national security. As part of this strategy, Royal Navy rules of engagement have been updated to allow closer monitoring of Russian vessels suspected of hostile activities. In fact, the most recent incursion of the Yantar into British waters caused HMS Somerset and HMS Tyne will escort the Russian ship until its departure for Dutch watersensuring that he did not remain in the area for prolonged periods. What does seem crystal clear is that the return of the Yantaring into British waters highlights the growing Russian threat to the UK’s critical infrastructure and the need for constant surveillance and a determined response. Image | Royal Navy In Xataka | The investigations into the cut submarine cables in the Baltic have taken a turn: it was not Russia, it was inexperience In Xataka | If China once again displays itself against Taiwan in the next two years, it will find a surprise: the US army

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