VOA慢速英语2021 中国希望在海底建立降温能耗巨大的数据中心（在线收听）

China is looking to the ocean to help reduce the cost of cooling data centers that use powerful computers and servers. The country also seeks to reduce the use of traditional energy sources.

中国希望利用海洋来帮助降低使用强劲计算机和服务器的数据中心的冷却成本。该国还在寻求减少传统能源的使用。

The southern island of Hainan has started work on the world's first undersea commercial data center. A Hainan government website said the project is expected to be complete in five years.

海南岛已经开始建设世界上第一个海底商用数据中心。海南省政府网站称，该项目预计将在5年内完工。

Data centers store and process internet data and use large amounts of energy to cool their computer networks. Power costs represent up to 70 percent of operation costs at a data center in China. That information comes from the environmental organization Greenpeace.

数据中心用于存储和处理互联网数据，并使用大量能源来冷却其中的计算机网络。电力成本占到了中国数据中心运营成本的70%。该信息来自于绿色和平环保组织。

The sea technology company Highlander is working with the local government to build the data center. The company said internet service provider Beijing Sinnet Technology will operate the data center in the future.

海洋科技公司海兰信与当地政府合作建设这个数据中心。该公司表示，未来将由互联网服务提供商北京光环新网科技公司来运营该数据中心。

Highlander added that both a final design of the center and a study of an area off the coast are completed.

海兰信公司还表示，该数据中心的最终设计以及对沿海地区的研究都已经完成。

Some experts say an undersea data center would reduce cooling costs by making use of dependably low ocean temperatures. But others are concerned about investment returns and the dependability of undersea services.

有专家表示，海底数据中心将通过利用可靠的海洋低温来降低冷却成本。但是其他人则担心投资回报以及海底服务的可靠性。

Yang Zhiyong is a technology expert at CCID Consulting, a state-supported information technology company. He said that while power use might be lower than land-based data centers, "investment at the beginning could be massive."

杨梽永是赛迪顾问公司的技术专家，这是一家国家支持的信息技术公司。他说，虽然用电量可能低于陆基数据中心，但是刚开始的投资可能会很大。

No investment value was given in the Hainan statement.

这个海南项目发布的声明中并未给出投资价值。

It was also unclear who would be financing the project.

目前尚不清楚谁将为该项目提供资金。

In 2018, Microsoft lowered a non-commercial data center the size of a truck about 35 meters into the sea off Britain. The small data center was brought back to land last year, and Microsoft declared the experiment a success.

2018年，微软将一个卡车大小的非商用数据中心放到了英国海域约35米深处。这个小型数据中心去年被带回到陆地，微软宣布实验成功。

The Hainan center is designed to contain about 100 data cabinets, each holding several server racks. Small to medium-sized data centers on land usually house up to 3,000 server racks.

这个海南数据中心设计包含大约100个数据柜，每个机柜可以容纳多个服务器机架。陆地上的中小型数据中心通常可容纳多达3000个服务器机架。

Yang said, "I'm afraid internet clients would probably not come to it first, as their major concern is the safety and stability of the data infrastructure."

杨梽永表示：“我担心互联网客户可能一开始不会光顾，因为他们最关心的是数据基础设施的安全性和稳定性。”