Page 35: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2021)

WORKBOAT THE DATA BARGE hen one says “Silicon Valley”, the ? rst image to come (Connaughton’s enthusiasm for the project is palpable, as to mind likely is not a barge. In fact, arguably, a barge you can see in watching the full interview on Maritime Re-

W would not make the “Top 100,000”. porter TV @ bit.ly/3mtZmw9).

Jim Connaughton and NDT are aiming to change that, as it teamed Elliott Bay Design Group, Lind Marine, Veolia and

Heat’s a (computer) Killer the Port of Stockton to refurbish and deliver a data center “When you think of a data center, it’s like a Costco with a on the water, a concept that NDT says offers many intrigu- hundred times the air conditioning (requirement),” said Con- ing strategic and environmental advantages that could make naughton, as data centers by their nature – with rows and rows barge-based data centers the wave of the future. of high-power, high-value, power-hungry computers – require “Data centers are now new mission-critical essential infra- massive cooling units to ensure the computers remain at op- structure, just like power plants, just like shipping and ports, timal temperature for functionality and long-life. Here in lies just like water treatment facilities,” said Connaughton. “With one of the big strategic advantages for a barge-based system, our partners at Elliott Bay Design Group we’ve married the as the proximity to the water provides an abundance of natural best of maritime technology and adapted that for use in the water cooling, which is a long- proven solution to keep ship data center environment to produce a data center that is among and boat engines cool. NDT’s patented Total Resource Usage the highest performing in the world, the most energy ef? cient Effectiveness (TRUE) cooling closed water loop technology in the world, and critically, super sustainable. Now, when you is central to the concept’s success.

put those three things together, the fourth feature is ? exibil- “At Nautilus we put our heads together with Elliot Bay and ity and mobility, similar to other forms of infrastructure such said, “Hey, let’s ? gure out how we can create a ? oating data as ? oating power plants, ? oating water treatment facilities or center and take advantage of the natural coldness of the water ? oating offshore housing facilities.” around it to cool that data center,” said Connaughton. While

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