While major tech companies are looking deep into outer space for a hospitable home for data centers, an entrepreneur from Vancouver, Washington, is seeking a solution much closer to home.
As CBS News reported, Panthalassa CEO and co-founder Garth Sheldon-Coulson believes he has a path to provide abundant clean energy and protect the grid from data center demand.
"The ocean is really unlimited in terms of how much energy is available," he said. "It will really be the cheapest energy on the planet."
The startup is looking to produce clean electricity from ocean waves to power floating island data centers for artificial intelligence. The system functions like a hydroelectric dam in Sheldon-Coulson's telling.
The firm's latest concept, the Ocean-3, generates energy through a turbine attached to an expansion-contraction ball. There are no anchors or cables.
"It's like a little Roomba, except it's enormous," Sheldon-Coulson told CBS News.
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The work is far from over after it generates energy, though. The prototype is intended to do AI computing tasks at sea and beam the output to land via satellite.
This all-in-one solution is especially appealing given the growing backlash to data centers. There is major concern about their rampant energy and water usage, but perhaps the impact on the grid and energy prices is attracting the most resistance.
Hence, tech powers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Tesla are exploring far-flung solutions, including orbital data centers.
Panthalassa occupies a middle ground, and the company has sufficient private funding from AI companies to complete Ocean-3 as a proof of concept.
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The goal is to begin offshore operations by August and deploy thousands of the units in the future.
"It is really exciting that we're working on something that is coming along right at the right time, in a way that's much cleaner, much more sustainable, and quite scalable, so that we can really meet that demand as it comes," Sheldon-Coulson concluded to CBS News.
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