China is one of the world’s largest data center markets today, with an IT capacity of over 3GW. With an explosion in emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), this market is only expected to grow. In order to manage this growth effectively and minimise adverse impact on the environment, the Chinese government has launched a Special Action Plan for Green and Low-Carbon Development of Data Centers.
According to details shared by China’s Xinhua News Agency, the National Development and Reform Commission announced recently that the plan was issued jointly by China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Energy Administration, and the National Data Bureau.
The plan aims to promote sustainability and improve energy efficiency, and sets two main targets. Firstly, China aims to optimise the national layout of data centres, achieving an overall rack utilisation rate of at least 60 percent, reducing the average power usage effectiveness (PUE) to 1.5 or lower, and increasing renewable energy utilisation by 10 percent annually, by 2025.
Secondly, China aims to meet international advanced standards for the average PUE, energy efficiency, and carbon efficiency of data centres nationwide by 2030. As per the plan, the utilisation of renewable energy will be further increased, and the waste heat utilisation rate of new large-scale data centres in northern heating regions will be significantly improved.
The plan outlines six key tasks:
– improving the layout of data center construction
– strictly enforcing energy efficiency and water efficiency requirements for new projects
– promoting energy-saving and carbon-reduction transformation of existing projects
– improving the level of renewable energy utilization
– strengthening resource conservation and intensive utilization, and
– promoting the application of energy-saving technologies and equipment.
These measures are designed to ensure that data centres achieve international standards for efficiency and sustainability by the set deadlines.
