China wants establish low carbon data centers in the city of Hohhot

China’s Hohhot could be an ideal green computing hub: The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology is setting into motion a development framework for establishing clean energy data centers in the Chinese city of Hohhot, Chinese state-owned news channel CGTN reports. The city is an ideal spot for the construction of green data centers given that it holds 57% of the country’s wind energy sources and 21% of its solar capacity, Deputy Mayor of Hohhot Zhang Jifei is quoted as saying. In 2022, the use of energy-efficient green computing data centers mitigated some 16 mn tons of CO2 equivalent in the country and saved c. 19.5 GW of energy that year, the news outlet notes.

Why is this important? Data centers — facilities composed of networked computers, computing infrastructure, and storage systems — are energy guzzlers, using up some 200 TWh of energy annually, and the sector generated some 300 metric tons of CO2 equivalent globally in 2020, according to International Energy Agency research.

We have a record breaking one in our region: The UAE’s 16 sqkm solar-powered data center Moro Hub nabbed a Guinness World Record for being the largest data hub in the world last year.