The “Eastern Data and Western Computing" Initiative in China Contributes to Its Net-Zero Target

Engineering ›› 2025, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (9) : 256 -261. DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2024.08.010

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Received	Accepted	Published
2024-01-11	2024-08-16	2024-08-30
Issue Date	Revised Date
2024-08-30	2024-07-24

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Abstract

As the world’s largest digital economy, China has a significant demand for data centers, which are energy-intensive. With an annual growth rate of 28% in installed capacity, these centers are primarily located in the developed eastern region, where land and energy resources are limited. This localization poses a major challenge to the industry’s net-zero goal. To address this, China has launched a bold initiative to relocate data centers to the western region, leveraging natural cooling, clean energy, and cost-effective resources. By 2030, this move is expected to reduce emissions from the data center sector by 16%-20%, generating direct economic benefits of approximately 53 billion USD. The success of this initiative can serve as a model for other countries to develop their internet infrastructure.

Keywords

Data center / Renewable energy / Carbon neutrality / Resource allocation

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Ning Zhang, Huabo Duan, Yuru Guan, Ruichang Mao, Guanghan Song, Jiakuan Yang, Yuli Shan. The “Eastern Data and Western Computing" Initiative in China Contributes to Its Net-Zero Target. Engineering, 2025, 52(9): 256-261 DOI:10.1016/j.eng.2024.08.010

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