Why AI and energy are key to global power

[Beijingwalker]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-31/solar-will-soon-pass-coal-as-china-s-top-power-capacity-source

 

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Envision Group completes massive, green-energy-powered AI data center in Inner Mongolia

www.chinadaily.com.cn

Envision Group completes massive, green-energy-powered AI data center in Inner Mongolia
Updated: 2026-08-06 21:32

Envision Turns Wind Power Into AI Power in Northern China

Green tech company Envision Group announced the completion of its largest AI data center on Thursday in Ulaanqab, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, setting what they claim to be global benchmarks for computing density and green-power integration in AI infrastructure.

According to a Shanghai Securities News report, the data center draws on green energy to power its building area of 120,000 square meters, approximately the size of 14 standard soccer fields. One million microchips work together to create a one-million-petaflop computing capacity, which is equivalent to roughly 2 million laptops.

At present, domestic AI computing is accelerating toward 100,000-chip and even million-chip interconnectivity. Envision claims its new cluster has a total planned capacity of 2 gigawatts, which, when completed, will give it the world's highest token output capacity.

To power the cluster, the data center leverages the region's abundant wind resources. Through self-built wind farms and dedicated transmission lines, it achieves direct green power supply.

Zheng Zihao, general manager of the group's Artificial Intelligence Data Center, which oversees the new node, said it is primarily designed to address the urgent demand from leading technology and AI companies for large-scale adoption of domestically produced computing power and is committed to delivering a green energy AI computing infrastructure solution for China's computing needs.

"Looking ahead, we will bring replicable Chinese AI data center solutions to regions around the world facing urgent computing demand, weak energy infrastructure, and power shortages," Zheng added.

 

[retaxis]

There are 4 types of coal. China is very fortunate to have great amounts of high quality coal while other countries often have coal but is mostly useless outside of cooking and warmth.

 

[ety]

There are 4 types of coal. China is very fortunate to have great amounts of high quality coal while other countries often have coal but is mostly useless outside of cooking and warmth.

There are 4 large strategic resources in the world: coal, iron ore, oil and rubber. Aside from coal that China has abundant quality supplies, China has abundant iron ore but poor quality, and China is short on oil reserve and rubber supplies.

 

[retaxis]

There are 4 large strategic resources in the world: coal, iron ore, oil and rubber. Aside from coal that China has abundant quality supplies, China has abundant iron ore but poor quality, and China is short on oil reserve and rubber supplies.

Yeah what we dont have we have to buy. Luckily we got plenty of rare earth which is a bonus and building more oil pipelines to Russia and central Asia. Central Asia is very happy because prior to Chinese oil pipelines, they had no choice but to transport it thru russian pipelines at lower profits.

Its okay to rely on others for trade because no country has everything themselves in the modern world. Saying that, we should build larger stockpiles of any strategic resources.

 

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Chinese government boosts investment in electricity grid to support AI development

The Chinese government has pledged to increase investment and coordination in the nation’s power gri

www.bastillepost.com

Chinese government boosts investment in electricity grid to support AI development​

2026-08-12 23:03 Last Updated At：08-13 11:29

The Chinese government has pledged to increase investment and coordination in the nation’s power grid to help alleviate the pressure on the power supply from China’s fast-growing tech and artificial intelligence (AI) sector.

In the Guangdong Shaoguan cluster, one of China's top ten national data center clusters, intelligent computing cabinets are the core hardware supporting the operation of large AI models. A single cabinet can consume up to 240 kWh of electricity per day when operating at full load, roughly equivalent to the total electricity consumption of an average household for a month. In addition to the computing equipment itself, the supporting cooling and humidity control systems also generate considerable power consumption.

"The computing power we built has increased from 5,000 PetaFLOPS last year to 30,000 PetaFLOPS now, and electricity consumption has increased five to six hundred times compared to last year," said Xie Jinbao, deputy director of the development and reform bureau of Shaoguan City.

Data shows that in 2025, computing centers nationwide consumed 18.1 percent more electricity than in 2024, far exceeding the 5.2-percent growth rate for electricity consumption for the rest of the nation’s households and businesses.

To meet the rapidly growing demand for computing power, AI companies will be encouraged to "transfer" computing tasks from areas with tight power supplies to areas with surplus, to ease the burden on the power grid.

Guangzhou City faced a power shortage earlier this year but, after receiving instructions from the Southern Power Grid, organizations moved non-urgent calculation tasks from Guangzhou to the Gui'an Data Center in southwest China’s Guizhou Province.

"At that time, we detected that the load in Guangzhou was too high, so we issued real-time dispatch instructions to the China Mobile Southern Base Data Center to adjust the load," said Zhang Zihao, head of the research and development center of the Computer Engineering Company under China Southern Power Grid Digital Group.

The National Development and Reform Commission announced on July 31 that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), four trillion yuan (about 593 billion US dollars) will be invested to promote the construction of a national integrated computing power network.

The integrated computing power network can schedule distributed computing power and regional resources across different regions, aggregate the advantages of single-point technologies into the advantages of national industrial clusters, and ultimately expand the growth space for domestic large-scale AI models.

"The 4-trillion-yuan investment in computing power networks is a crucial foundation for the future overseas expansion of our large models. First of all, it will further reduce the computing power costs of providing such services overseas and enhance the reliability of these services. This is fundamental and a basic guarantee for the future in-depth, practical, and sustainable overseas expansion of our large models," said Du Guochen, director of the Institute of E-commerce at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

 

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China connects the world’s largest LFP battery energy storage system: 4 GWh and grid-forming technology in Inner Mongolia

A gigantic energy storage facility with a power output of 1 GW and a capacity of 4 GWh has begun operating in Inner Mongolia. The DongSu project stands

e-greenify.com

China connects the world’s largest LFP battery energy storage system: 4 GWh and grid-forming technology in Inner Mongolia​

August 14, 2026 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

A gigantic energy storage facility with a power output of 1 GW and a capacity of 4 GWh has begun operating in Inner Mongolia. The DongSu project stands out not only for its record-breaking scale but, above all, as a major milestone in the deployment of grid-forming technology, which can stabilize the grid without relying on conventional power plants.

On August 3, 2026, the DongSu Substation New Energy Storage Special Action project was successfully connected to China’s power grid on its first attempt. Located near the town of Mandulatu in Sonid Left Banner, the facility cost its investor, Wanbang Digital Energy, approximately 3 billion yuan (around USD 445 million) and covers an area of 28 hectares. Local authorities emphasize that it is currently the world’s largest grid-forming LFP battery energy storage system. With a four-hour discharge cycle, the system is expected to deliver approximately 1 TWh of electricity to the grid annually.

Why is grid-forming technology so important in this case?​

Most conventional solar PV and energy storage inverters operate in grid-following mode, meaning they require an existing voltage and frequency reference generated by traditional coal- or gas-fired power plants.

The newly commissioned facility uses advanced grid-forming technology:

• Independent stabilization — the inverters establish and maintain local voltage and frequency parameters on their own.
• Strong support for renewables — this enables the safe integration of vast amounts of wind and solar power in the region without increasing the risk of grid failure.
• Black-start capability — the system can independently restore voltage and bring part of the grid back online following a complete blackout.

Inner Mongolia pioneers a new era of renewable energy​

Inner Mongolia is one of China’s most important regions for wind and solar power generation. It is also home to the Ulanqab Energy Storage project, which has been included in a list of the world’s largest energy storage facilities.

However, the rapid development of renewable energy in the region is placing enormous pressure on transmission lines. Rather than serving solely to shift energy between periods of low and peak demand, the DongSu project combines four-hour energy storage with immediate support for grid dynamics.

The investment is aligned with China’s latest renewable energy development plan for 2026–2030, published in July 2026. The plan places particular emphasis on deploying grid-forming solutions, improving power-generation forecasting accuracy, and building renewable power plants designed to support the wider electricity system.

 

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Ulanqab Turns Into China's Top AI Data Center Hub Thanks to Low Energy Prices, Cool Climate

www.yicaiglobal.com

Ulanqab Turns Into China's Top AI Data Center Hub Thanks to Low Energy Prices, Cool Climate
DATE: 6 hours ago

Ulanqab Turns Into China's Top AI Data Center Hub Thanks to Low Energy Prices, Cool Climate

(Yicai) Aug. 17 -- Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has become one of the most robust artificial intelligence data center clusters in China, with the city's low electricity costs amid abundant renewable energy resources and cooler climate attracting industry giants like Alibaba Group Holding.

"For data centers of the same scale, the annual electricity costs in Ulanqab can save CNY5 billion (USD741.5 million) compared to operating in other cities," Wang Zhaoyang, general manager of Alibaba Cloud's local AI data center, told Yicai. Zhangjiakou in northwestern Hebei province was home to the firm's largest base in the cloud computing era, but Ulanqab has far outperformed others in the AI computing era, Wang added.

Visitors at Ulanqab's Chahar High-Tech Zone can spot more than 30 data centers in just a 10-minute drive, Yicai noticed. In addition, construction workers can be seen across many data center parks, as new facilities keep rapidly appearing.

Market proximity, cost advantages, and technological demands were the three interrelated factors that made Alibaba Cloud pick Ulanqab as its primary base of operation, Wang noted. Data centers need to be close to end markets, especially for latency-sensitive applications such as quantitative trading and online games, Wang pointed out, but stressed that the low electricity prices are the most decisive factor.

Electricity prices in Ulanqab range from 32 Chinese cents to 35 Chinese cents (around 5 US cents) per kilowatt-hour, while the city's average annual temperature of 4.3 degrees Celsius is conducive to heat dissipation. It also sits only about 350 kilometers away from Beijing, where many Chinese users are based, so the round-trip network latency is merely 4 milliseconds.

Yicai also visited Alibaba Cloud's innovative data center designed exclusively for the AI era. The facility was built based on the company's fully modular CUBE 5.0 architecture, which reduces construction time for AI data centers to just 100 days from the standard six to 12 months.

"Faster delivery equals faster productivity," Wang noted. "No computing card sits idle, as each is either training AI models or generating tokens, with early delivery providing extra value to clients."

 

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Hitachi Energy invests $300 million in China to bolster global manufacturing capacity for critical grid infrastructure

Hitachi Energy, a global leader in electrification, today announced a $300 million USD investment in China to strengthen its global manufacturing footprint and address rapidly growing demand for transformers.

www.hitachienergy.com

Hitachi Energy invests $300 million in China to bolster global manufacturing capacity for critical grid infrastructure​

Press Release | Beijing, China, Zurich, Switzerland | 17.08.2026

• Investment expands Hitachi Energy’s power transformer and component manufacturing capacity and expertise in China
• New capacity reinforces global transformers’ value chain and eases supply bottlenecks
• Leverages China’s manufacturing, innovation, and talent strengths to support the demand for mission-critical grid equipment

Hitachi Energy, a global leader in electrification, today announced a $300 million USD investment in China to strengthen its global manufacturing footprint and address rapidly growing demand for transformers. The investment will bolster the company’s power transformer and component manufacturing capacity in Hefei, East China’s Anhui Province, strengthening the resilience of the global transformer value chain to help ease supply chain constraints.

This investment underscores China’s strategic importance to the company’s global growth ambitions and supply chain resilience. It forms part of the company’s $9 billion global investment plan, the largest in the industry, to expand manufacturing capacity, engineering, R&D, and partnerships, as global demand for energy solutions continues to accelerate.

With more than four decades of operations in China, Hitachi Energy has a strong presence with 11 manufacturing sites and capabilities spanning the full value chain, from R&D, consulting, sales, engineering, manufacturing, and services.

“As demand for electricity surges, driven by rapid growth in AI, data centers, mobility and industrialization, the need for critical grid equipment has never been greater. Building on our continued commitment in China, this expansion is an example of how we are strengthening our manufacturing capabilities and reinforcing the resilience of local and global transformer value chains to better support our customers in building more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy systems for the electricity era.””

Bruno Melles
CEO of Business Unit Transformers
Hitachi Energy

“This significant investment reflects our long-term commitment to our customers, partners, and market and demonstrates our confidence in China’s manufacturing ecosystem. The establishment of a state-of-the-art power transformer factory and the new ultra-high voltage bushing facility, as well as the launch of the digital production line of tap changers, are key milestones in the company’s presence in the country. Together, this investment will support China’s development of a new energy system while meeting growing demand from customers around the world.””

James Zhao
Executive Vice President and Region Head North Asia
Hitachi Energy