An energy company believes it has the solution to growing concerns over the visual and environmental impact of data centres. It is planning to take them out to sea.
Mocean Energy is developing Blue Core, an offshore data centre which draws on wave energy, solar and battery storage to power on-board AI server racks without a grid connection.
The Edinburgh-based company is now raising £5 million in a pre-Series A round to develop the technology. It has already secured more than half the total.
The project comes amid a backlash against hyperscale data centres, some larger than the villages where developers want to build them. Concerns include the demands being put on the grid and water supplies.
Mocean’s modular units can be joined together to create server farms, with the temperature controlled by the North Sea.
By using a closed-loop system that exchanges heat with the ocean, cooling is expected to consume around 5% of the energy budget, compared with 15% to 35% at onshore data centres.
The new offshore data centre concept builds on Mocean’s existing Blue Star offshore power system, which has completed 18 months of full-scale sea testing with offshore energy companies and technology developers. Mocean has secured an additional Blue Star pilot, targeting first sales in 2028.
Blue Core’s first offshore demonstrator and early commercial deployments are expected from 2030, with a 10-year goal of 6 GW capacity.
Cameron McNatt, managing director, said: “We’ve spent years proving this technology works in some of the harshest sea conditions anywhere in the world.
“Blue Core takes that same proven system and points it at a much bigger problem. AI data centres are going to need more power than the grid can easily give them, and the ocean can provide that.
“We’re not trying to build another data centre. We’re trying to remove the barriers around power, land and social licensing that are currently holding the industry back.”
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