Kraaken: A Ship, Power Plant, Reservoir & Data Centre in One When a natural disaster strikes, repairing electricity grids can be one of the trickiest parts of relief efforts. Often, it can take days or weeks for power to be properly restored, even in the world's most developed countries. For disasters of high magnitude, like major earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis, the relief efforts in those first few days is often what matters most. A lack of power only makes those efforts more difficult. InMar Technologies and OptiFuel Systems, two companies based in the US's Carolinas, are well accustomed to extreme weather events. Just two years ago, Hurricane Helene – the deadliest and most destructive hurricane since Katrina – tore through North and South Carolina, killing more than 100 people and leaving around six million without power. These two firms, operating together under the moniker Optimal Transit, have just come up with a quite extraordinary proposal to solve to this problem. They recently published their concept for the Blue Economy VITAL 100MW Kraaken, which they describe as "a ship that can power 32,000 homes and produce clean water for 150,000 people with no fuel and no emissions". Oh, and the vessel also acts as a data centre capable of 60MW of AI compute. So, how exactly will this ship work, and how can the companies bring their futuristic vision to life? The details of the Kraaken The fundamental purpose for the Blue Economy VITAL 100MW Kraaken (henceforth just Kraaken) is to deliver power and water to shore, all while operating as a data centre. Optimal Transit's concept suggests the vessel could export a continuous stream of up to 40MW of self-produced electricity, while it could also produce around 30 million litres of fresh water daily using a process called vacuum-flash desalination.