Chinese Tech Companies Rolled Up Their Sleeves For Zero-Carbon Internet

China's internet sector, which has experienced a strong growth in recent years, also increases its electricity consumption. Data centers, large-scale servers and cellular base stations consume more electricity. According to a report by the State Grid Energy Research Institute of China, the electricity consumption of data centers alone exceeded 2020 billion kWh in 200, accounting for 2,7 percent of the country's electricity consumption. The report expects data center electricity consumption in China to rise to more than 2030 billion kWh by 400, reaching 3,7 percent of the country's total electricity consumption.

Professor of Beijing Jiaotong University. Wang Yuanfeng said, “The electricity consumption of China's internet industry is growing by about 10 percent annually. "It will double in seven or eight years and become a major source of energy consumption in the future," he said. Wang, a carbon emission reduction expert and advocate of green development, said businesses in the industry need to move fast to build greener internet infrastructure.

Increasing electricity consumption led China's tech giants like Huawei and Tencent to establish a zero-carbon internet industry. Huawei unveiled its zero-carbon network solution at the Shanghai 2021 Mobile World Congress last month, including minimalized base stations, server rooms, data centers, and large green electricity use. Zhou Taoyuan, Vice President of Huawei and Head of Digital Power Product Line, said Huawei can reduce energy consumption by using high-performance, low-power demand and highly integrated servers, and by minimizing the room occupation of base stations.

Tencent also opted for large wind-powered Huailai or Qingyuan cities in Hebei Province with abundant hydro power to build their data centers. In Qingyuan, data centers used high-efficiency power module and free cooling technology using natural cold resources to reduce the Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) value to 1,25 in addition to consuming hydropower.

In addition, the company began using "triple supply" technology to combine power, heating and cooling in data centers to increase comprehensive energy utilization efficiency. Tencent said triple supply could save 3 tons of standard coal each year and reduce 500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to planting 23 trees each year.

Source: China International Radio