China sets green targets for data centers

China has unveiled an action plan on the green development of data centers, specifying a set of targets to accelerate the low-carbon transition of the sector.

By 2025, the average power usage effectiveness (PUE) of data centers, a metric for energy efficiency, will be lowered to less than 1.5, according to the plan jointly issued on Tuesday by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and two central government agencies.

The plan also aims to increase the utilization rate of renewable energy in data centers by 10 percent annually.

As an important infrastructure for development of new quality productive forces, data centers are among the sectors where energy use grow rapidly in China. It is expected that data centers’ power usage in the country will climb by 15 percent annually.

The action plan proposed that by the end of 2030, data centers across the country will see their average PUE, and energy and carbon efficiency per unit of computing power reach internationally advanced levels, with the utilization rate of renewable energy further improved.

To meet the aforementioned goals, China will improve the layout of data centers, tighten the energy and water use efficiency requirements for new projects, facilitate the energy saving and carbon reduction transformation of existing projects and promote the application of energy-saving technologies and equipment, according to the plan.

Industrial data show that China’s total computing power scale now ranks second in the world. By the end of 2023, the number of data center racks in use topped 8.1 million in the country. 

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