“The climate cost of China’s digital infrastructure rush”, 15 April 2020

A slowing economy and the coronavirus pandemic has prompted China’s leadership to call for faster construction of “neo-infrastructure” such as data centres and 5G networks, to stabilise investment and provide high-quality growth.

The concept of “neo-infrastructure” arose in a Central Economic Work Conference in late 2018, to refer to digitalisation and smart technology…

But the energy and climate impacts need to be considered. Construction of data centres and 5G networks should be low-carbon and based on market demand, not blind enthusiasm. The government should continue overseeing data centre expansion and energy efficiency improvements, and steer the sector towards greater use of renewable energy. This will aid the economic recovery in the near term and provide sustainable growth for the long term…

The year will be crucial for the 5G roll-out… The three major mobile operators – China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – along with state-owned telecommunication tower firm China Tower, will invest 197.3 billion yuan ($28 billion) in 5G networks. Around 550,000 base stations, covering all prefecture-level cities, are expected to be operational by the end of the year…

As 5G networks and data centres expand, so does the energy they consume to run and cool the equipment 24 hours a day…

… Data centre power consumption is projected to grow 66% by 2023, to 267 billion kilowatt hours.

Assuming China’s energy mix remains the same, the report estimated that by 2023 its data centres will produce 163 million tonnes of carbon emissions – equivalent to those of a medium-sized country.

5G networks are also facing energy challenges. According to a Huawei white paper on telecommunications sector energy targets, 5G energy consumption per unit of data is a tenth that of 4G. But 5G requires two to three times as many base stations and carries more data. So energy consumption per base station is between 3 and 3.5 times that of 4G, and overall network power consumption will double, to over 100 billion kilowatt hours…

If China’s neo-infrastructure is to be green and low-carbon, better energy efficiency and a shift to renewable power are crucial…

And with the combination of China’s neo-infrastructure plans and green development requirements, the country’s construction of 5G networks and data centres will not just decide the future of the digital economy – it will help determine whether or not China can achieve its goal of green and low-carbon development.

[Also referred to Alibaba and Stack Data]