 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
 By Eva Xiao and Danni Zhu Beijing (AFP) Sept 9, 2019
China's data centres -- the backbone of the country's fast-growing digital economy -- are on track to guzzle more electricity by 2023 than all of Australia last year, said a Greenpeace report published Monday. While China leads the world in renewable energy capacity, data centres in the country remain dependent on coal. Nearly three-quarters of the electricity used by data centres was sourced from coal in 2018, according to research by Greenpeace East Asia and the North China Electric Power University -- emitting 99 million tonnes of carbon emissions. By 2023, that number could jump to 163 million tonnes. The appetite for data storage and transmission in China has skyrocketed in recent years, with 800 million online users and a booming tech industry churning out photos, videos, and online transactions. "While China's data centre industry has made significant improvements in terms of energy efficiency, the industry's massive carbon footprint is proof that much more action is needed," said Ye Ruiqi, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia. Currently, Chinese data centres lack awareness of their "responsibility to respond to climate change", she told AFP. According to the Greenpeace report, electricity consumption from China's data centre industry is projected to increase by 66 percent over the next five years. By 2023, the industry will exceed Australia's total electricity consumption in 2018, the report said. But by boosting the intake of renewable energy from its current 23 percent to 30 percent, Chinese tech companies could save roughly the equivalent of 10 million round-trip transatlantic flights in carbon emissions, according to Greenpeace East Asia. - Ambitious targets - China is not alone in grappling with surging demand for instant access to online data, and data centres expend large amounts of electricity to keep servers running and cool. Microsoft has a data centre submerged off northern Scotland, where the sea offers cooling for free. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba hosts one of its data centres in a naturally cool area of northern Hebei province, with access to wind and solar power. But Greenpeace's report, which studied 44 data centres in China, found that nearly 90 percent of facilities sourced power directly from the national grid. While China leads the world in renewable energy capacity -- it has more renewable energy capacity than all of the European Union, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency -- the country is still dependent on coal. In 2018, China's coal consumption increased for the second year in a row, though coal accounted for less than two-thirds of national energy consumption, according to the country's statistics bureau. But the Chinese government has set ambitious targets for renewable energy -- and aims to boost the proportion of non-fossil fuels in its total energy consumption to around 20 percent by 2030. "It is just unfortunate that China's rapid growth and the availability of coal have translated into a lot more coal power stations," said Paul Mah, a Singapore-based correspondent for industry publication Datacenter Dynamics. "Fortunately, as China moves towards greater availability of green power, this should be reflected in a lower reliance of data centres on coal power." dz-ewx/rox/qan
China's Tianhe-2 Supercomputer to Crunch Space Data From New Radio Telescope Beijing (Sputnik) Aug 23, 2019 In anticipation of the world's largest astronomical instrument, Beijing is set to construct a permanent regional data hub that will house its Tianhe-2 supercomputer to make sense of reams of data acquired from space. A recent Xinhua report revealed that China's Tianhe-2, once known as the world's fastest supercomputer, will work on astronomical data following the 2020 construction of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) in South Africa and Western Australia. The SKA radio telescope is expected t ... read more
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Google
