ChinData announced it is part of China’s first nationwide renewable power contract
The data center company participated in China’s first nationwide green power transaction, and completed a procurement of 100,000MWh.
ChinData said a total of 259 domestic Chinese entities participated in the green power transaction, with a total transaction volume of 7.935 billion kWh.
In January ChinData became the first Chinese data center firm to set a carbon-neutral target date. The company aims to be carbon neutral across all its hyperscale data centers in China and use 100 percent renewable energy solutions by 2030.
At the time the company said it was committed to investing in clean energy and will have an installed capacity of no less than 2GW by the end of this decade. The company says it has already signed renewable energy contracts with local governments such as Datong and Zhangjiakou totaling 1300 MW of installed capacity.
According to its 2020 ESG report, renewable energy accounted for 51 percent of ChinData’s annual data center power consumption. The company is also developing a 150MW solar power plant oriented that is expected to produce approximately 200 million kWh annually upon completion.
Zhangjiakou city in Hebei Province is China’s first National Renewable Energy Demonstration Zone. The company has a hyperscale campus in the city and has consumed a total of 440.2 million kWh of green power through the green power consumption mechanisms in the region.
According to Greenpeace, China’s data center firms are well behind western counterparts on green initiatives. ChinData is the only firm to set a firm target date for becoming neutral, and most are heavily reliant of fossil fuels. Baidu’s energy mix is 8.6 percent renewable – second in the country behind ChinData – with the others all either reporting less than three percent or failing to report their figures.
JD.com has said its new data centers will connect to district heating schemes to reuse heat energy but is yet to set a firm carbon neutral target date. Baidu recently announced an offering of $1 billion in bonds it plans to use towards its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives.
