Small datacenters face the axe under China's new energy policy
Tech industry told to clean up its act – and help others to do likewise – in pursuit of 2035 'Beautiful China' goal
China's digital infrastructure providers have been told they need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption, plus consider ending use of smaller facilities, under a sweeping "comprehensive green transition" plan announced yesterday.
The plan sets goals that China's State Council – the equivalent of a Western democracy's cabinet – asserted will mean that by 2030 China has achieved "'remarkable results’ in the green transition in all areas of economic and social development." By 2035, Beijing expects "a green, low-carbon, and circular development economic system will be basically established and the goal of Beautiful China will be basically achieved."
The policy calls for digital technology to both enable and contribute to the shift. Industries of all sorts are encouraged to adopt cloud services, and to analyze their data in pursuit of energy-efficient operations.
The policy also calls for authorities to "Promote the construction of green and low-carbon digital infrastructure, promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation of existing facilities, and gradually eliminate 'old, small and scattered' facilities" China is already relocating five million datacenter racks to bit barns powered by renewable energy sources – so infrastructure operators are on notice that Beijing wants them to improve energy efficiency.
China also wants national systems to monitor environmental pollution and dangerous weather events, and issue "active warnings" that enable better decision-making.
The policy also calls for "construction of a real three-dimensional China and the empowerment of spatiotemporal information." That sounds a lot like a very-large-scale digital twin.
The policy sets a target of "about 25 percent" of energy consumption to come from "non-fossil" sources by 2030 – listing wind, hydro, solar and nuclear, as well as "new energy sources" such as hydrogen, biomass, geothermal and "marine energy according to local conditions." It sets a target of pumped storage hydropower of over 120 million kilowatts online by that year.
The Global Electricity Review 2024 report from energy think tank Ember Climate found that in 2023 China added more than half of the world's new wind and solar generation capacity. It could have been higher, but 2023 was apparently a little less sunny in China than normal. At the same time, hydro power generation fell a little.
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However, Ember found China added more coal energy sources (319 TWh) for electricity generation in 2023 than it did solar and wind (280 TWh).
Beijing seems to acknowledge that, as the government's press release concedes "the energy structure remain[s] biased toward coal and the proportion of fossil energy and traditional industries remain[s] high in the country."
To achieve its green energy and environmental goals, China will use government funds to build green products, offer trade-in programs to proliferate green products (especially cars), and launch marketing campaigns for electric vehicles and other green appliances in the rural part of China. The country is also asking its citizens to pursue a "green and healthy life."
The release also revealed the government will offer financial instruments like trusts to promote further energy efficiency improvements. ®