On January 12, the international environmental organization Greenpeace released a report stating that Internet companies have extremely strong The low-carbon transformation potential should play a role in energy conservation and emission reduction, and strive to achieve the goal of 100% renewable energy by 2030. At the same time, the cost of renewable energy power generation is declining, and low-carbon transformation will also become an important means for enterprises to control power costs.
Data map of Cloud Computing Center. Xinhua News Agency Photo
China's Internet technology industry has strong potential for low-carbon transformation
On January 12, the international environmental organization Greenpeace released "Towards Carbon Neutrality: China's Internet Technology The research report "Roadmap for the Industry to Achieve 100% Renewable Energy" believes that with China's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, it has become an inevitable trend for the technology industry to shift to 100% renewable energy.
Carbon neutrality means that enterprises, groups or individuals measure the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced directly or indirectly within a certain period of time, and offset their own carbon dioxide emissions through afforestation, energy conservation and emission reduction. , to achieve "zero emission" of carbon dioxide. my country has clearly stated the goal of striving to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
The report pointed out that in the context of China’s carbon peak before 2030, it is expected that during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the pressure and targets for carbon peaking will be broken down into specific industries. The scale of China's Internet technology industry is still expanding rapidly and carbon emissions continue to grow. Without the use of renewable energy, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality simply by improving energy-saving technologies.
The report explains that the carbon emissions of Internet technology companies mainly come from electricity use, of which the electricity use of large Internet infrastructure such as data centers and cloud computing centers is the main source of energy consumption. The company uses 100% renewable energy, which means that its electricity comes from wind energy, solar energy, water energy and other energy sources that are harmless or minimally harmful to the environment.
According to previous reports from Nandu, Wu Libo, a professor at the School of Economics at Fudan University and director of the Energy Economics and Strategy Research Center of Fudan University, proposed that the energy consumption of large-scale Internet infrastructure such as data centers is very high. In 2018, the energy consumption of my country’s data centers The total electricity consumption has exceeded the total electricity consumption of Shanghai as a whole, reaching about 150 billion kilowatts, accounting for 2.35% of the electricity consumption of China's entire society. Wu Libo estimates that if current trends are followed, data center energy consumption will reach a maximum of 1.4 trillion kilowatts by 2030, accounting for 20% of the entire society's energy consumption.
The report stated that there are about 41 technology companies in the world that have taken the lead in setting long-term 100% renewable energy goals. About 20% of them have already achieved 100% renewable energy goals, and about 50% of them will achieve 100% renewable energy goals. % renewable energy target is set before 2030, and 44% of companies achieved 60% or more renewable energy utilization in 2019.
Currently in China, only one Internet technology company, Chindata Group, has set a goal of achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030. Ye Ruiqi, director of the Greenpeace Project, said: "The decarbonization development of data centers and cloud computing is an important part of China's efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. China's Internet technology industry has strong potential for low-carbon transformation and should be an important part of China's carbon peak. The vanguard of the carbon neutrality goal."
With reference to the international situation and China's ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, the report recommends that Internet technology companies should combine their own business development needs and set the goal of Achieve 100% use of renewable energy by 2030, and no later than 2050.
Green power has become an important means for enterprises to reduce emissions and control costs
What should enterprises do to achieve the goal of using 100% renewable energy? According to the report, with the development of China's renewable energy market, the ways in which companies purchase renewable energy are becoming more and more diversified. Market-based green power trading, “green power certificate” subscription, and investment in distributed and centralized renewable energy power stations have become the main methods.
Market-based green electricity trading means that users voluntarily purchase electricity converted from renewable energy sources, that is, green electricity, from suppliers without relying on mandatory policy requirements. For example, in 2019, an Internet company's data center in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province purchased local wind and solar power to achieve 40% power supply by renewable energy.
In 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Energy Administration issued the "Notice on the Trial Implementation of the Renewable Energy Green Power Certificate Issuance and Voluntary Subscription Trading System". The green power certificate market in China Officially launched. Each green electricity certificate (referred to as "green certificate") is equivalent to 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. After the enterprise purchases the certificate, it can be regarded as purchasing the corresponding green power, and the funds will be used to support the corresponding kilowatt-hour subsidy of the power generator.
In addition, companies can also build distributed renewable energy power generation projects on rooftops or in parks, such as distributed photovoltaics and distributed wind power, to directly obtain and use green power. For example, in 2020, a company's data center in Shanghai added solar panels to the wall facade, which can reduce the consumption of traditional thermal power by 90,000 kilowatt-hours per year, which is equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 63.3 tons. The report shows that the return rate for investing in distributed projects is 8%, and the return rate for investing in large-scale wind power, photovoltaic and other centralized projects is 9%-12%.
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