Protean ponders powering subsea datacenters

Protean Wave Energy, a Perth-based wave energy developer, is considering the possibility of using wave energy to produce power for subsea datacenters.

The developer behind the Protean wave energy converter expressed its intention to team up with the subsea datacenter developers to provide power for the centers which would be harnessed from the waves, The Australian reports.

“We believe that our technology will have the capability to provide power and/or cooling to a marine or subsea datacenter. There are ifs and buts about that though: if they put it in an area that’s completely flat and doesn’t have any wave energy, that’s going to make it hard to generate power close by,” Bruce Lane, Managing Director of Protean Wave Energy said for The Australian.

The news follows the recent deployment of Microsoft’s subsea datacenter that could be powered by harnessing the energy of waves or tides as part of Project Natick.

It was deployed off Cal Poly Pier, California, where Protean Wave Energy plans to conduct staged ocean wave energy and energy storage micro-grid project deployment, starting this year.