How China Is Powering New Data Centers with Clean Energy

The number of data centers in China is surging thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), just like in the U.S. But unlike the U.S., China is racing to power them with clean energy.

A data center in Mongolia, for example, is connected to 200 megawatts of wind power, 100 megawatts of solar power and 45 megawatts of battery storage. In remote Qinghai, a pilot data center runs fully on a solar microgrid. In another part of northern China, a data center is connected to 500 megawatts of solar and 1.5 gigawatts of wind power.

Some data centers in the U.S. also use clean power. But in China, they are part of a national strategy. Inside eight large data center hubs created in China's "East West Computing Strategy"—focused on building data centers in the areas where China has the most renewable energy—all new data centers need to source at least 80 percent of their electricity from clean sources. In another action plan the Chinese government released in May, it outlined 29 measures to boost the amount of clean power at data centers.

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