A draft, by the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, proposes to further strengthen the energy conservation review of the Beijing Data Center Project, requiring the project to increase the proportion of renewable energy utilization by 10% each year, to achieve 100% by 2030.
The data center is an important data intelligence infrastructure, important support for the construction of a global digital economy benchmark city, and also major energy consumption and carbon dioxide emitter.
According to calculations by professional institutions, Beijing’s existing data center cabinets account for about 12% of the country’s total, and new projects are also growing rapidly. The rapid growth of data centers will bring a series of challenges, the first of which is the rapid increase in carbon emissions.
The carbon dioxide emission intensity of electricity is high, especially when more than 60% of the local electricity comes from other cities, the excessive growth of data centers will put pressure on the city’s carbon emission control. Secondly, the growth of data centers also brings challenges in powering supply security. According to estimates, the total power of the Beijing data center currently accounts for about 8% of the city’s average power supply load, which puts pressure on the city’s power supply security during peak power consumption.
Therefore, the document proposes to improve the level of renewable energy utilization in data centers. If the use area of the data center occupies more than 50% of the building area, the integrated application of photovoltaic buildings should be realized, and photovoltaic modules should be installed on the roof and external walls.
Self-built facilities that cannot meet the electricity requirements can subscribe for renewable energy green power certificates, etc., and increase the proportion of renewable energy utilization year by year, reaching 100% by 2030.
