There are some global problems you don't want to think about. When it comes to processing artificial intelligence computing tasks, you don't wanna think about it too. Such energy consumption are truly demanding. I want us to share with you about Panthalassa, a data center that generates it's energy from ocean waves. As you'd expect, it's architecture is quite different from traditional, on land structures. This is it:
and the part that's immersed in water looks like:
I want us to look at why it's promising, how it impacts AI computing tasks, how it's a clean alternative to other non-environmental friendly ways to curb these demands.
My inspiration for this article came when I listened to Panthalassa's CEO and co-founder, Sheldon Coulson. Here are his inspirations:
Everyone wants to find the things that make it so that people have schools, and roads, and hospitals, food. All of the things that humans need, are all driven by energy. The question is can you find things that are much kinder to the planet or just try to find the things that work for humanity. You look out of the ocean and you see these millions of square miles and you start to calculate how much energy you can go and get and find it's a lot more than humans need.
But, think about it. We don't need energy in the middle of the ocean. So what does the machine do right or different.
"As it goes up and down with the waves, it causes water that's in that tube to be forced up into the top. Once it's in the ball, the water is forced through a turbine. The turbine spins, and that's what makes the electricity."
The computation happens on the spot as the energy is being generated. And then sends the output through the satellites. This eliminates the need to plat cooling systems because obviously the ocean is super cool. Again, it's significantly cheaper to construct compared to data centers on land.
Ocean-3 is planned to be deployed this year. But it also arises the re-liabilities issues for several reasons: the waves can turn to storms and destroy it, salty water is corrosive to the machine or even gradual accumulation of microorganisms on it's surface. There are measures that have been taken in place to mitigate the effects.
Myself I think it's a good move. Mainly because it's a way of generating unlimited, clean and locally sourced power directly from ocean waves to run computing AI at sea, by-passing land-based power shortages, cooling constraints and infrastructure limitations.
You can find out more about Panthalassa and it's Ocean-2 on their website: https://panthalassa.com/ and watch this video for more insights: https://youtu.be/Q7Pmgq2JKbI?si=Lrj6bUFGpzMhWqDc.
Until next time, peace, focus.
Happy coding.
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