Swedish energy giant Vattenfall has signed a deal with Project Enki, a European AI data center startup, and electrical services provider ABB to explore the development of offshore data centers directly connected to offshore wind farms.

According to the companies, the concept seeks to power data center infrastructure with renewable power. If realized, Project Enki will develop and operate the offshore data centers, while Vattenfall will provide the power generated by its offshore assets.

“With this initiative, we are exploring how existing technologies can be combined in new ways,” said Nardi Polak, head of supplier innovation at Vattenfall. “Offshore data centers create an opportunity to use renewable power directly where it is generated, allowing us to utilize the capacity of our wind farms more efficiently.”

The partners claim that, unlike traditional cloud data centers, the facilities would instead be designed specifically for long-duration, compute-intensive processing tasks. During periods of low wind generation, certain workloads will be delayed or reduced, which the companies claim will create a more flexible relationship between power generation and compute demand.

“We are utilizing wind energy that would otherwise not be generated or fully utilized,” Paul Kunneman, managing director of Project Enki, said. “Our power consumption does not come at the expense of electricity supplied to households. Sovereignty, sustainability, and speed – that is Project Enki.”

In addition, the partners claim that the initiative could positively address challenges associated with renewable energy production, with energy that would otherwise be curtailed due to grid congestion or unfavorable market conditions instead being consumed locally by offshore data centers under predefined commercial arrangements.

Cooling for the data centers would be provided by seawater, which the companies argue could improve cooling efficiency while reducing energy consumption and associated carbon emissions.

The initiative is in its early stages, with the partners focused on identifying a first deployment location. At present, a joint project team from Vattenfall, Project Enki, and ABB is evaluating the technical, economic, and societal aspects of the concept, including infrastructure requirements, operational feasibility, and potential benefits.

Vattenfall is a Swedish state-owned energy company that is one of the largest developers of wind power outside the European market. At present, the company has around 4.4GW of offshore wind capacity across Europe.

Offshore data centers are gaining popularity as land scarcity becomes an increasing issue for data center operators. Last month, Chinese developer HiCloud brought its offshore wind-powered underwater data center online off the coast of Shanghai. The project has a capacity of 24MW and is located in Shanghai’s Lingang Special Area. It was officially launched in June 2025, completed in October, and began full commercial operations last week following successful initial trials in February.