T he industrial port town of Sines, Portugal, has quietly become home to one of Europe’ s most ambitious technology projects to date.

Here, on repurposed land where a decommissioned power station once stood, Schneider Electric and Start Campus have constructed SIN01 – a 26MW AI data centre that is the first phase of a planned 1.2GW campus designed specifically for AI workloads.

What sets this facility apart isn’ t just its scale, but its fresh approach to sustainability. SIN01 is the world’ s first AI data centre to use ocean water as its primary cooling method, drawing directly from the Atlantic and returning it just one degree warmer.

For those who witnessed its journey from concept to reality, the transformation has been remarkable.

“ The first time I discussed this project was in 2021 – and at that time, people did not believe in it,” recalls Pablo Ruiz Escribano, Senior Vice President of Secure Power and Data Centre Business at Schneider Electric Europe.

“ Some people were even making fun of the concept. Now five years later, being in my new position, I started the new role in March and the first event I did was in Iberia, opening this data centre.

“ For me it is really emotional. Emotional because it was an idea and now it’ s a reality.”

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