China Connects Green Power to AI Hubs as Computing Electricity Surges

China is accelerating the integration of renewable energy grids with national computing hubs to manage the power demands of expanding artificial intelligence systems. According to figures reported by People's Daily, daily token consumption across the country grew from 100 billion in early 2024 to 140 trillion in March 2026, driving computing power centers to consume 170 billion kilowatt-hours in 2025. The National Energy Administration projects computing electricity use will reach 800 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030, spurring policy support and direct green power supply infrastructure across western resource hubs.

The commercial scaling of large language models is fundamentally constrained by electricity generation and grid stability. Computing power centers require stable voltage and frequency while consuming immense power volumes. China's push to directly link renewable energy bases to western data center clusters tests whether high-demand digital infrastructure can expand rapidly without driving up carbon emissions or destabilizing local utility grids.

China is intensifying efforts to align its power infrastructure with the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, as surging computing demand increases pressure on electricity supply systems. Data reported by People's Daily indicates that daily token queries across the country surged from 100 billion in early 2024 to 140 trillion in March 2026. In 2025, national computing power centers consumed 170 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, accounting for approximately 1.6% of the country's total power consumption. Projections by the National Energy Administration indicate that computing-related electricity use will expand by more than 100 billion kWh annually during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, reaching approximately 800 billion kWh by 2030, or roughly 6% of total national electricity demand. Data processing hardware demands high power stability, where minor fluctuations in voltage or frequency can lead to transmission errors and equipment disruptions. To address these demands, policymakers are pairing national power generation capacity with targeted spatial planning. As of May, China's total power generation capacity exceeded 4 billion kilowatts, with non-fossil sources accounting for 62% of the total. Under the 'Eastern Data, Western Computing' initiative, China has organized eight computing hubs and ten national data center clusters. In western hubs such as Horinger in Inner Mongolia and Qingyang in Gansu, newly constructed data centers have achieved green electricity consumption shares exceeding 80%, supported by a green power certificate market that recorded 930 million transactions in 2025. Policy support has also expanded. Earlier this year, 'computing-electricity coordination' was formally designated as a key task in the Government Work Report. In April, four central government agencies, including the National Development and Reform Commission, issued an action plan to coordinate the layout of major renewable energy bases with national computing hubs. In Ningxia's Zhongwei, the China Datang Zhongwei Cloud Base 500,000-kilowatt photovoltaic project commenced operations as the country's first large-scale direct green power supply facility dedicated to computing infrastructure.