In a bid to address its growing data needs, China has approved plans to build four mega clusters of data centres in the country’s north and west with the aim of supporting the data needs of Beijing and major coastal centres.
According to the country’s top state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, the clusters will be built in the northern Inner Mongolia region, northwestern Ningxia region, Gansu province and southwestern Guizhou province.
Green mega Data Centres
The four locations can use their energy and environmental advantages to set up green and low-carbon mega data centres, the National Development and Reform Commission said. Industry watchers attribute this move to the fact that energy-guzzling data centres located in China’s eastern locations have found it difficult to expand due to sanctions imposed on electricity consumption by local governments.
In October 2021, local Chinese authorities have ordered power cuts at many factories, as directives from the government have mandated a reduction in carbon emissions. As many as 20 provinces are believed to be experiencing the crisis to some degree, with factories temporarily shuttered or working on short hours, according to a Guardian report.
China aims to expand its big data industry to 3 trillion yuan by 2025 by building several clusters of data centres, according to a 2021-2025 plan by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. A marine economy development plan published on December 14 encouraged major coastal cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai to relocate high energy-consuming data centres to underwater locations to cut energy used for cooling.
In February 2016, Guizhou Province was approved to build the country’s first big data (Guizhou) comprehensive pilot zone. Guian New District, the eighth national new area in China, has 15 large and super-large data centres in the pipeline or under construction, making it one of the regions with the largest number of super-large data centres in the world.