Mocean Energy, the Edinburgh-based wave energy company, is raising £5 million to develop a floating data centre powered by wave and solar energy, with a pilot targeted for 2028 and full deployment from 2030.

The system, called Blue Core, houses racks of servers in a floating unit connected by satellite. The modular units can be joined together to form server farms, with North Sea water temperatures reducing the power needed to cool the processors.

Mocean, founded in 2015, has operations in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Orkney and the United States. It is targeting up to 6 gigawatts of capacity by 2040.

The company has also developed Blue Star, an offshore power unit combining renewable generation with battery support. It is aiming for first commercial sales of that product in 2028, the same year it hopes to have the Blue Core pilot running.

Cameron McNatt, managing director of Mocean Energy, said: “We’ve spent years proving this technology works in some of the harshest sea conditions anywhere in the world.

“Blue Core takes that same proven system and points it at a much bigger problem. AI data centres are going to need more power than the grid can easily give them, and the ocean can provide that.”

McNatt said the company was not seeking to compete with conventional operators. “We’re not trying to build another data centre. We’re trying to remove the barriers around power, land and social licensing that are currently holding the industry back.”

He added: “When sited in national waters, the farms also provide sovereign infrastructure rather than a lease on another country’s cloud.”

The approach has been tested before. Microsoft’s Project Natick, a subsea data centre deployed in 2018, spent two years underwater off Orkney.

Grid queue and planning pressure

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) estimates there is 60 gigawatts of data centre capacity waiting to join the high-voltage transmission network. That is roughly 30 times the capacity of sites currently connected.

Neso manages the connections queue for projects seeking to join the transmission system in Great Britain.

With the grid around London and the south east of England heavily constrained, Neso has been encouraging technology companies to build in Scotland. More than 20 hyperscale data centre planning applications have followed. Business Matters has previously reported on how data centre investment has stalled over electricity supply and on the rise in UK electricity demand driven by EVs, heat pumps and AI.

Campaigns have formed against several of the Scottish proposals. Objectors say the buildings will draw on local electricity and water supplies, alter landscapes and create few permanent jobs.

Similar arguments have been made elsewhere, including over the gas-powered data centre proposed at Wapseys Wood.