Underwater data centers (UDCs) have benefits such as low-cost cooling and zero land reclamation costs. They are most suitable for providing data and multimedia content to subscribers in coastal areas. UDC operation requires power for executing data storage, algorithm processing, and data forwarding. Suitable power sources are offshore wind turbines, nuclear, and wave. However, UDCs can be deployed in areas where these systems are absent due to insufficient development. It is crucial that UDCs can operate in these regions. This requires the design of a new energy source, such as floating semi-submerged solar systems. Floating semi-submerged solar systems are considered due to their low cost. The research proposes a paradigm that harnesses the wave interaction underlying solar farm power output. It explores the feasibility of semi-submerged floating solar panels at a depth of 100 cm. The research considers wave interactions and their influence on solar irradiation interception to describe the energy output basis for semi-submerged conditions. The research described in this paper also presents a split architecture aimed at enabling power usage effectiveness (PUE)-aware computing. The UDC–terrestrial data center split architecture executes workload migration from terrestrial data centers to UDCs when PUE lowering is desired. The paper provides a basis for the potential deployment of two-plane oriented solar panel systems. Evaluation shows that the use of the two-plane -oriented solar panel arising from the wave interaction paradigm enhances the energy output by an average of 75.6%. The use of the proposed split architecture enhances the PUE by (18.9–30.5)% on average.
Periola et al. (Wed,) studied this question.