On June 6, six departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released2023 National Green Data Center List。50 data centers in the fields of communications, Internet, public institutions, energy, finance, and smart computing centers are among them. At present, China has built a total of 246 national green data centers.
With the explosive development of artificial intelligence,Huge energy consumption problems caused by data centersIt has also attracted much attention. According to the release in June this year"Data Center Full Life Cycle Green Computing Power Index White Paper"(hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper"), it is estimated that by 2030, the total energy consumption of China's data centers will exceed 400 billion kilowatt-hours. If the proportion of renewable energy utilization is not increased, the carbon dioxide emissions of China's data centers may exceed 200 million tons in 2030. The "White Paper" believes that as the optimization space for PUE (Electric Energy Efficiency, a core indicator for evaluating data centers) continues to shrink and the power consumption of data centers continues to increase, how to apply green electricity in data centers has become the key to reducing carbon emissions. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the weight of renewable energy in terms of substitution, supply, structure, etc.
Due to regional layout differences between data centers and renewable energy, data centers will also face the problem of whether they can smoothly purchase green electricity across and across regions. Through research and exchanges with industry insiders, researchers from the Paper Research Institute further explored how data centers can increase the proportion of green electricity, improve the utilization level of renewable energy, and achieve green and low-carbon operations.
Misaligned layout of data centers and renewable energy
At present, most of China's data centers are located in the eastern region. However, due to the increasing shortage of land, energy and other resources, the continued development of data centers on a large scale is limited. The western region is abundant in resources, especially renewable energy. Therefore, the state supports the transfer of data centers to the west. In February 2,"East Numbers and West Numbers" ProjectLaunched, eight places including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu, and Ningxia were selected to start the construction of national computing power hub nodes, and 10 national data center clusters were planned.
Wang Jiandong, then Director of the Planning Division of the Big Data Development Department of the National Information Centerthink, one of the starting points of the "Eastern Digital and Western Computing" project is that the problem of high energy consumption in the data center industry needs to be alleviated urgently. On the one hand, energy consumption indicators in the developed regions in the east, especially first-tier cities such as North, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, are tight, making it difficult to support the implementation of large-scale and above data centers in the eastern region, which restricts the development of the digital economy. On the other hand, western regions such as Gansu and Ningxia have a suitable climate and environment and rich in clean energy. The data center is built here. Its long-term operating costs of electronic components and low costs of clean energy use.
In December 2023,"Implementation Opinions on In-depth Implementation of the" Eastern Computing and Western Computing "Project and Accelerating the Construction of a National Integrated Computing Power Network"It is further proposed to give full play to the advantages of areas with abundant wind, wind, hydropower resources, strengthen the promotion and application of green and low-carbon technologies, increase the proportion of green electricity used in data centers, and enhance the supply level of green computing power. By the end of 2025, green electricity in newly built data centers at national hub nodes will account for more than 80%.
In order to increase the utilization of renewable energy,National Green Data CenterSite selection and construction in areas where renewable energy is rich and natural conditions have natural advantages. For example, Building 2 of Wudang Yungu Big Data Center Park, located in Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province, actively uses clean green electricity from Danjiangkou Hydropower Plant and uses deep cold water from Danjiangkou Reservoir as a natural cold source. In 2023, the data center's power utilization efficiency (PUE) will be 1.20, and the renewable energy utilization rate will reach 100%.
Overall, despite the steady advancement of the "East and West" strategy, the problem of dislocation between data centers and renewable energy regions is still prominent. Han Xue, deputy director of the Research Office of the Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy, Development Research Center of the State CouncilseemsThe construction of data centers in the western region is still facing obstacles such as insufficient technical personnel and poor operation and maintenance levels. Data centers in the central and eastern regions are likely to face a lack of local green electricity.
Purchase green electricity to improve the utilization of renewable resources
At present, data centers mainly improve the utilization of renewable energy in two direct and indirect ways. The former uses its own distributed photovoltaic power stations or wind power stations for its own self-reliance; the latter uses the method of purchasing green power or green certificates, butCompared with green electricity, green certificates lack market recognition。In 2023, the average utilization rate of renewable energy power in the National Green Data Center will reach more than 50%.
For data centers lacking local green power resources, the proportion of green power directly generated by self-built distributed photovoltaic power stations is not high.
Therefore, on the basis of building its own photovoltaic power stations, data centers also need to purchase green electricity or green certificates to improve the utilization of renewable energy. National Green Data CenterWanguo Data Pujiang Data CenterFor example, the annual power generation capacity of the distributed photovoltaic system in the data center can reach 238,000 kilowatt-hours. Combined with direct green power mining and green certificate trading, it will maintain a 100% renewable energy utilization rate from 2022. In 2021, Wanguo Data and China Guangdong Nuclear Power New Energy Investment (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. signed a green power cooperation framework agreement,It is planned to purchase no less than 2 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity within 10 years.
Because data center electricity costs account for % of its total operating costsmore than 80% ofTherefore, data centers are affected by green electricity prices in green electricity transactions and face certain cost pressures. At the same time, green electricity trading has resource enrichment areas and load centers.mismatch between supply and demand, more support needs to be given to cross-regional and cross-provincial green electricity transactions. according to"Research on the Current Situation and Key Issues of Green Electricity Trading in my Country"According to one article, the environmental premium of green electricity sold in the operating area of the State Grid Corporation of China will reach 3 points/kWh, 5 points/kWh, and 6.5 points/kWh in 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively. In recent years, the transaction price of green electricity transactions in the operating area of China Southern Power Grid Corporation has also continued to rise. In 2023, the transaction price will be 1.85 cents/kWh higher than the average price of coal and electricity.
Coordinated development of data centers and renewable energy
In order to improve the utilization rate of renewable energy, in addition to building distributed photovoltaic power stations and purchasing green electricity and green certificates, data centers can also consider from the perspective of green electricity supply and demand, proactively go global, and strengthen the relationship between green electricity supply and demand through industrial collaborative innovation. cooperation. Research by researchers at the Paper Research Institute found that existing data centers are actively exploring and innovating to allow green electricity to flow from "supply" to "demand" to jointly achieve green development.
The first is to increase the supply of green electricity and expand renewable energy business. According to Aofei Data's announcement, in 2021, the company will expand its new energy business segment, focusing on investing and operating distributed photovoltaic power generation projects as its main business direction, selecting self-built data centers as strategic pilots, and gradually and orderly carrying out external commercial distributed photovoltaic power generation. Signing and construction of projects. It is understood that Aofei Data's own data center in Hebei-Langfang Xunyun Data Center. By investing in the construction of rooftop distributed photovoltaics, it has achieved annual green power generation of more than 4 million kilowatt-hours and achieved full on-site consumption.
The second is to consume green electricity locally to realize the value of renewable energy. Shanghai Liming Resources Reutilization Co., Ltd. takes advantage of the renewable energy advantages of waste incineration power generation projects to build a "green data center" nearby. The data center is planned to be located in the original office building area of the factory area. The green electricity generated by the waste incineration power plant can be directly used by the data center. The project hopes to deeply integrate the digital economy and renewable energy and create a 100% green energy data center. It is understood that after the data center is operated in the future, 70% of the green electricity from the Dawn Waste Incineration Power Plant can be consumed nearby. For waste incineration power generation companies, they can also benefit from providing green electricity and achieve sustainable operations.
In short, in order to increase the proportion of green electricity in data centers and improve the utilization rate of renewable energy, first, under the national strategic layout of "counting from the east to the west", make full use of the location advantages of rich renewable energy to select sites and build data centers; Second, in the absence of local renewable energy, strengthen support for cross-provincial and cross-regional green electricity transactions; third, encourage data centers to actively innovate, allow green electricity to create value in the flow of supply and demand, cooperate with ecological partners for win-win results, and achieve green development.