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Entering Qineng Technology’s Super Energy Complex Computing Park in Guangling County, Datong, Shanxi, one can see large white single-story buildings rising from the ground. Inside the data halls, indicator lights on high-density cabinet arrays flash rhythmically. A group of local operation and maintenance engineers are undergoing on-job training, providing technical support for the stable operation of the computing park.

 

“Different from traditional data centers, these engineers are professionals skilled in both computing infrastructure and new energy operation and maintenance. They ensure the computing park can stably consume green power supplied by power generation bases 20 kilometers away, realizing computing-power coordination and integrated energy-computing development,” said Xu Jun, General Manager of the Park Business Division of Qineng Technology.

 

Covering an area of 150 mu in its first phase, the Super Energy Complex Computing Park has a planned total IT capacity of 120 MW. It is a computing infrastructure cluster featuring vertical integration of fundamental resources including energy, computing power, data and networks.

 

“Datong enjoys prominent advantages in developing the computing power industry and is highly attractive to enterprises,” Xu Jun introduced. Datong is rich in coal power and new energy resources. Meanwhile, it is adjacent to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei computing power demand hub, with network latency below 3 milliseconds. In addition, the city has a cool climate, with an annual average temperature of 6.4℃ and natural cooling available for 10 months a year. Under identical technical conditions, energy consumption can be reduced by 30%.

 

Xu Jun noted that the park is equipped with an on-site wind-solar complementary project 20 kilometers away. A large-scale 250 MW photovoltaic power base has been connected to the grid, with an annual power output of 450 million kilowatt-hours. Through direct green power supply and other approaches, the park will further realize local consumption of clean energy and computing-power coordination. Moreover, the park is equipped with high-performance centralized energy storage facilities to effectively lower energy costs.

 

“Datong’s industrial structure is transforming from watts to bits, and its resource advantages are gradually turning into development advantages,” said Han Jie, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of Datong Municipal Data Administration. As a major comprehensive energy supply base, new energy and other renewable energy account for over 56% of Datong’s total installed power capacity, ranking among the nationwide leading level.

 

In recent years, Datong has advanced the layout and construction of computing centers in an orderly manner, improved the supply capacity and resource utilization efficiency of intelligent computing resources, and built a closed-loop computing power industrial system covering hardware manufacturing, computing services, data applications and supporting services. Driven by the computing power industry, Datong is advancing economic transformation, striving to achieve a leap from exporting coal and electricity to exporting computing power and services.

 

“We have introduced industrial players including server manufacturing and power distribution facilities upstream, and attracted and cultivated more than 60 data service enterprises such as JD Logistics and Shanghai Runxun downstream for call center and data labeling services, creating local jobs for over 33,000 people in total,” Han Jie said.

 

Up to now, Datong has invested more than 30 billion yuan in computing centers, completed construction of over 410,000 standard racks, with an overall rack utilization rate of 92%.

 

“Going forward, Datong will accelerate the integration of electric power and computing power, advance reforms for computing-power coordination, enhance green power supply capacity, and build a green computing power industry cluster. Meanwhile, we will speed up the construction of ongoing computing center projects, and improve local new energy consumption capacity and computing power supply capacity,” Han Jie added.