this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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[–] vatlark@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Makes infinitely more sense than in space.

Power, maintainence, and cooling all seem easier

[–] mech@feddit.org 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Honestly, if it was mandated that data centers are only allowed to use renewable energy, this wouldn't be too bad.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 10 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Would waste heat go into the air or water? What affects could that have?

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 3 points 4 hours ago

If the electricity comes from renewable sources, it is no (global) problem. In that case, you've just taken the sun's energy from one place (solar panel, wind turbine, etc.) and moved it elsewhere (the ocean). That's fine, that energy was going to end up heating the Earth in any case.

This is very different from greenhouse gas emissions, as those increase the total amount of energy the sun delivers to Earth, changing the global balance.

[–] bajabound@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I'd probably be more concerned with them using bunker b or c for power generation.

[–] ZMoney@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Came here for this comment. The image is suspiciously free of smokestacks.

[–] mech@feddit.org 4 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (2 children)

It would go into the water, and it would have basically no effect at all.
The amount of heat is many orders of magnitude too low to heat the oceans up.
As long as you don't park in very shallow waters where it would have a local effect.

[–] realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip 2 points 13 hours ago

A single ship? Ye, no impact.

Thousands? Well, that will be very noticeable.

[–] valar@lemmy.ca 17 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Isn't this the attitude that got us climate change in the first place?

[–] mech@feddit.org 9 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

True. But the scale is still a bit different:
Climate change added 400 ZJ of heat energy to the oceans so far.
If we piped the heat of all datacenters that currently exist into the oceans, that would add 0.001 ZJ per year.
The major issue (for global warming, not local warming) isn't waste heat, it's greenhouse gasses.

[–] markz@suppo.fi 4 points 20 hours ago

Heating the oceans globally would require insane and totally unrealistic scale, but the effect on ecosystem on the immediate surroundings is a good question.