According the a report of China’s State Grid Energy Research Institute, China’s data centers in 2020 consumed 2.7% of the nation’s Electriciy (200 billion kWh) and will double to 400 billion kWh or 3.7% by 2030. As a consequence, major actors try to cut down on energy consumption and go for zero-carbon solutions.
Tencent has chosen regions with sufficient green energy for its data centers, such as Huailai (Hebei Province) that has abundant wind electricity, or Qingyuan (Guangdong Province) that has abundant hydro power.
Huawei will reduce the number of base stations, server rooms and data centers and will use more “green” electricity. By combining artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and traditional photovoltaic stations, Huawei’s “smart photovoltaic projects” direct solar panels to actively follow sunlight, the way sunflowers do, generating up to 18.7 % more electricity than a traditional station. According to Huawei, its green power generation and efficient electricity consumption sectors have already generated 325 billion kWh of green electricity and saved 10 billion kWh, equivalent to planting 220 million trees.
Xinhua news release, March 29, 2021
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