Optimal Transit, a maritime technology partnership of InMar Technologies and OptiFuel Systems, introduced the Blue Economy VITAL 100 MW Kraaken, a second configuration of its Kraaken platform designed to export baseload electricity and fresh water continuously to shore while still hosting AI-grade data center compute offshore.
The VITAL 100 MW Kraaken keeps the same small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) architecture, flexible mooring system, and patented Digital Ocean Thermal (DOT) self-powering engine described for the Kraaken platform, while changing how onboard output is allocated between utility service and data center operations.
In this configuration, up to 40 MW of continuous electricity is exported to shore, and about 30 million liters (roughly 7.9 million gallons) of fresh water per day is produced using vacuum-flash desalination. The remaining capacity is listed as 60 MW for hosting AI-grade data center compute. Optimal Transit says all three outputs—power, water, and compute—connect to shore through a quick-disconnect umbilical system, with the vessel able to disconnect and relocate within hours and reconnect when conditions allow.
For data center operators and infrastructure planners, the practical implication is that this is an offshore platform pitched as both utility infrastructure and compute infrastructure, tied together by a single mooring and export connection. That’s an unusual coupling: it trades conventional siting and grid interconnect work for marine operations, offshore export hardware, and a mobility model that looks more like industrial maritime than a fixed facility.
Jeff Kline, President of InMar Technologies, said, “The VITAL 100 MW configuration takes the same core capabilities and asks a different question: what happens when you point some of that output directly at a coastline that doesn’t have reliable power or clean water? The answer is a single vessel that can serve the equivalent of a small city—indefinitely, from offshore, with no connection to the existing grid.”
Optimal Transit puts the all-in capital cost of a VITAL 100 MW Kraaken vessel at about $587 million. It compares that to an estimated $750 million to $1.33 billion to build a similar bundle of land-based assets (a 40 MW power plant, a 7.9-million-gallon-per-day desalination facility, and a 60 MW AI-grade data center shell), and describes a roughly three-year timeline for the vessel versus six to 10 years for the land-based projects.
Optimal Transit also described multi-vessel deployments, including a five-vessel “Sovereign Power Park” within a two-mile offshore zone that it says would deliver about 200 MW of baseload power, 40 million gallons of fresh water per day, and 300 MW of data center compute capacity.
Source: Optimal Transit
