On December 8, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued a notice on the "Implementation Plan for the Implementation of the Carbon Neutrality Target to Promote the Green and High-Quality Development of Data Centers and New Infrastructures such as 5G". The "Plan" proposes to support the large-scale promotion and application of modular hydrogen batteries and solar panel houses in small or edge data centers. Combined with new technologies such as energy storage and hydrogen energy, increase the proportion of renewable energy in the energy supply of data centers. Support qualified data centers to carry out new energy power supply lines. Coordinate the layout of 5G and renewable energy distributed power generation, actively promote de-redundancy and simple allocation of energy consumption systems such as power supplies and air conditioners, and strictly control the disposal of waste facilities.

The original text is as follows:

The National Development and Reform Commission and other departments have issued the "Implementation

Peak Carbon Neutrality Goal Calls for Pushing Data Centers, 5G and More

Notice on the Implementation Plan for the Green and High-quality Development of New Infrastructure

No. 1742 [2021] of the National Development and Reform Commission

All provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and cities under separate state planning, the Development and Reform Commission of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Office of the Internet and Information Technology, the competent departments of industry and information technology, the Communications Administration, and the Energy Administration:

In order to implement the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutralization", the unified deployment in accordance with the "Carbon Peaking Action Plan before 2030", orderly promote the use of data centers, 5G The green and high-quality development of the new infrastructure represented by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Central Network Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Energy Administration Jointly researched and formulated the "Implementation Plan for the Implementation of the Carbon Neutrality Target to Promote the Green and High-Quality Development of New Infrastructures such as Data Centers and 5G". It is hereby printed and distributed to you, please take into account the actual situation and earnestly implement it.

National Development and Reform Commission

Central Cyberspace Administration of China

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

National Energy Board

November 30, 2021

Implement the carbon neutral target requirements

Promote the green and high-quality development of new infrastructure such as data centers and 5G

implementation plan

Data centers and 5G are strategic resources and public infrastructures that support future economic and social development, and they are also the most critical links related to energy conservation and consumption reduction of new infrastructure. In order to implement the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutralization", the unified deployment in accordance with the "Carbon Peaking Action Plan before 2030", orderly promote the use of data centers and 5G as the The green and high-quality development of the representative new infrastructure will play its role of "one industry leading hundreds of industries" to help achieve the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and this plan is formulated.
  1. General requirements

(1) Guiding ideology.

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Plenary Sessions of the 19th Central Committee, and fully implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important thought on building a country through the Internet And Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought, based on the new development stage, implement the new development concept, build a new development pattern, coordinate and handle the relationship between development and emission reduction, overall and local, short-term and long-term, strengthen the relationship between data, computing power and energy. Coordinate and link, accelerate technological innovation and model innovation, and unswervingly follow the path of green and low-carbon development.

(2) Main principles.

Overall planning and scientific layout. Based on the overall situation of economic and social digital transformation and high-quality development, respect the laws of industrial and technological development, and in the process of moderately advancing new infrastructure such as data centers and 5G, adhere to scientific layout, intensive development, and equal emphasis on construction and use, and realize the realization in development. Low carbon transition. Government-led, market-led. Strengthen macro-guidance, correctly handle the relationship between the government and the market, and adhere to the coordinated advancement of the transformation of the stock and the optimization of the increment. Give full play to the role of market players, strengthen standard guidance, introduce competition mechanisms, incentive mechanisms and cost-reversal mechanisms to promote green and low-carbon development of the entire industrial chain. Intensive construction, energy saving and carbon reduction. Adhere to intensive, green and intelligent construction, accelerate the R&D and promotion of energy-saving and low-carbon technologies, and support technological innovation and model innovation. Strengthen the integration and sharing of infrastructure resources and improve resource utilization efficiency. Promote the transformation and upgrading of old infrastructure. Reform and innovation, and improve the ecology. Remove the policy bottlenecks that restrict green and high-quality development, strengthen the coordination and cooperation of network, energy, fiscal and taxation policies, and actively cultivate data centers, 5G green and low-carbon transformation, and innovation and entrepreneurship ecology that drives the sustainable development of the whole society. 

(3) Development goals.
By 2025, data centers and 5G will basically form a green and intensive integrated operation pattern. The power utilization efficiency of data center operation and the utilization rate of renewable energy have been significantly improved. The average power utilization efficiency of newly built large and super-large data centers nationwide has dropped to below 1.3, and the national hub node has further dropped to below 1.25. The green and low-carbon level has reached 4A or above. The overall utilization rate of data centers across the country has increased significantly. The utilization rate of data centers in the west has increased from 30% to more than 50%, and the supply and demand of computing power in the east and west are more balanced. The energy efficiency of 5G base stations has been improved by more than 20%. The dynamic monitoring mechanism of data center and 5G energy consumption is basically formed, and the comprehensive output measurement system and statistical methods are basically sound. On the basis of green and high-quality development of data centers and 5G, it will fully support the digital transformation and upgrading of various industries, especially traditional high-energy-consuming industries, help achieve the overall goal of carbon peaking, and lay a solid foundation for carbon neutrality.     

二、主要任务 

(1) Strengthen overall planning. 5G network construction should be considered simultaneously in the planning and construction of infrastructure such as transportation, energy, industry and municipality. Optimize the construction and layout of data centers, and build large and super-large data centers in principle within the national hub node data center cluster. Support the non-real-time computing power needs of back-end processing, storage and backup in the eastern region, and transfer to the western regions with rich scenery resources and suitable climate. Encourage data center backbone enterprises to take the lead in completing the layout. In principle, local governments are not allowed to grant preferential policies in terms of land, finance and taxation to newly built data centers outside of national hub nodes. All localities should strengthen the overall guidance on the construction of data centers, and resolutely avoid the blind and disorderly development of data centers.

  (2) Improve the energy efficiency of computing power. Support basic telecom operators to develop 5G network co-construction and sharing and inter-network roaming, and strengthen resource reuse. Speed ​​up the decommissioning and upgrading of old and high-energy-consuming equipment, and promote the construction of smart multi-functional light poles. Accelerate the construction of green data centers and publish the list of national green data centers. The power utilization efficiency of newly built large and super-large data centers shall not be higher than 1.3, and the energy-saving and carbon reduction transformation of data centers with power utilization efficiency exceeding 1.5 shall be gradually carried out. If the overall availability rate of data centers in the region (completed and put into operation for more than 1 year) is less than 50%, planning of new data center clusters and new large-scale and super-large data center projects are not supported.

  (3) Innovative energy-saving technologies. Encourage the use of efficient and environmentally friendly refrigeration technology to reduce energy consumption. Support data centers to build data centers by adopting new types of computer room precision air conditioners, liquid cooling, cabinet-type modularization, and comprehensive utilization of waste heat. Promote energy-saving technologies for refrigeration systems, optimize airflow organization, and gradually improve the dynamic adaptability to the operating state of IT equipment through intelligent means. Accelerate the promotion and application of energy-saving 5G base stations, support high-efficiency energy-saving technologies such as silicon carbide radio frequency devices, and adopt new processes, new materials, new solutions, and new designs to reduce the energy consumption of base station equipment. 

  (4) Optimize the energy-saving mode. Encourage the application of artificial intelligence technology in data center and 5G network management, strengthen automated and intelligent energy consumption management, and improve the overall level of energy conservation. Support to strengthen the application of technologies such as smart symbol silence, deep sleep, and channel silence in 5G networks without affecting the user experience. Encourage exploration and utilization of qualified idle industrial plants, as well as the use of special geographical conditions such as caves, mountain passes, seabeds, rivers and lakes to develop data centers, give full play to the natural advantages of natural conditions such as climate, hydrology, topography and landforms, and promote energy saving and reduction in data centers according to local conditions. consumption.

  (5) Utilize green energy. Encourage the use of renewable energy such as wind energy and solar energy, improve the use of green power in data centers through self-built dedicated lines or bilateral transactions, and promote the nearby consumption of renewable energy. Support the large-scale promotion and application of modular hydrogen batteries and solar panel houses in small or edge data centers. Combined with new technologies such as energy storage and hydrogen energy, increase the proportion of renewable energy in the energy supply of data centers. Support qualified data centers to carry out new energy power supply lines. Coordinate the layout of 5G and renewable energy distributed power generation, actively promote de-redundancy and simple allocation of energy consumption systems such as power supplies and air conditioners, and strictly control the disposal of waste facilities.

   (6) Promote transformation and upgrading. Give full play to the important supporting role of data centers and 5G in promoting the digital transformation of traditional industries, promote traditional industries such as coal, steel, cement, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, and chemical industries to accelerate the pace of “going to the cloud and empowering intelligence with data”, optimize management processes, and achieve economical This cost reduction. Publish the list of new national data centers, and create a benchmark for computing power infrastructure to promote the digital transformation of traditional industries. Encourage energy-rich areas in the west to develop labor-intensive industries such as data processing, data cleaning, and data content services on-site around data centers, transform the "watt" industry into a "bit" industry, and rely on industrial leapfrogging and upgrading to achieve low-carbon green development.

 3. Safeguard measures

(7) Strengthen overall planning and take multiple measures simultaneously. Coordinate communication networks, power and energy, ecological environment, finance and taxation and other related forces to create favorable policy support for green and low-carbon development. For new data center projects that meet the conditions and are included in the scope of the national hub node data center cluster, actively coordinate and arrange energy consumption indicators to provide appropriate support, and give priority to projects that have achieved outstanding results in the implementation of "East Number and West Calculation". Coordinate and solve major issues such as facility planning, investment, construction, supervision, and evaluation, and organize exploration and pilot projects in terms of industry access and market supervision.

  (8) Raise standards and reduce energy consumption. All localities should speed up the organization and conduct of data center production energy consumption surveys, and register data centers (including those already built and under construction) with a scale of more than 100 standard racks (2.5KW) one by one to form the data center scale, shelf rate, and energy consumption. A list of base numbers such as levels shall be submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Central Cyberspace Administration before the end of each year. Strengthen energy management, and include all data centers with an annual comprehensive energy consumption of more than 10,000 tons of standard coal into the management of key energy-consuming units. Accelerate the research and establishment of a comprehensive data center evaluation system and dynamic monitoring and assessment mechanism covering indicators such as energy efficiency level, renewable energy utilization rate, resource utilization rate, and economic contribution rate. Organize the implementation of national industrial special energy conservation supervision, and strengthen the energy efficiency supervision of data centers. Guide small scattered data centers with low utilization, high energy consumption, and poor benefits to retire and upgrade. Accelerate the formulation of advanced energy efficiency standards for 5G networks, strengthen industry interconnectivity, and build benchmarking and demonstration networks. 

  (9) Advance step by step and implement it steadily. Support national hub nodes in data center standards, mechanisms, technologies, etc., to play a leading role in demonstration and promotion, and replicate and promote excellent experience models across the country. Gradually expand market-oriented electricity transactions, and improve the supply guarantee capability of electricity, especially renewable energy, to data centers and 5G networks. Promote the conversion of power supply to direct power supply, strengthen the price supervision of power supply links and other measures to reduce the cost of 5G base station operation electricity. Gradually promote the promotion and application of self-controllable 5G network low-power products, increase the requirements for energy efficiency indicators and energy-saving functions in bidding and procurement, and continue to promote the energy consumption statistics of 5G base stations and the implementation of various energy-saving measures.