Vattenfall and Dutch AI infrastructure company Project Enki have joined forces on the potential development of offshore AI data centres that would be connected directly to offshore wind farms in the North Sea.
The initiative, which also involves ABB, is currently in a feasibility phase assessing the technical, economic and societal aspects of establishing the first offshore location.
The platforms would use seawater cooling instead of freshwater and would not require a direct connection to the national electricity grid.
According to the companies, the concept would use electricity generated by offshore wind farms that would otherwise be curtailed due to grid congestion or low power prices.
Rather than exporting all electricity to shore, the offshore platforms would consume a limited share of a wind farm’s generation capacity to power AI computing workloads, while the remaining electricity would continue to be supplied to the onshore grid. Because AI training and other compute-intensive processes can be scheduled flexibly, computing demand could be scaled up or down depending on available wind generation.
“When the grid is full, wind farms are forced to slow down their turbines. The energy they could have supplied is never generated. Project Enki gives that energy a destination, directly at sea, without burdening the grid and without this coming at the expense of green electricity supply to households or businesses” , Project Enki said in a press release.
Under the proposed concept, Project Enki would develop and operate the offshore data centres, while Vattenfall would supply renewable electricity under a long-term arrangement.
The companies said they are investigating suitable locations in the North Sea alongside existing offshore wind farms, with the project currently in its start-up phase, focused on preparing the first deployment.