# China's AI compute hubs and the renewables they are meant to absorb

Source: chinaqueue.com/compute · as of 2026-08 · generated 2026-10-14

China's East Data, West Computing programme steers compute toward renewable-rich regions, but
most of it is still in the east. The approvals split the eight national hubs into four resource
hubs in renewable-rich regions and four demand hubs where compute users are concentrated.
Official documents frame the policy as absorbing renewable energy locally. This page sets the
hubs against the 2025 provincial solar-utilization tiers; that join is ours.

## Headline figures

- 8 national compute hubs (4 resource hubs, 4 demand hubs) and 10 data-centre clusters, approved 2021-12 and 2022-02 (NDRC, CAC, MIIT, NEA).
- 3 of the 4 resource hubs sit in provinces where solar utilization was below 95% in 2025 (Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia); across all 8 hubs, 4 do (Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei).
- Intelligent compute capacity (FP16): 2,185 EFLOPS at end-June 2026, up 177% year on year (MIIT (State Council Information Office briefing, 2026-07-20), via Xinhua).
- Earlier reading: more than 1,590 EFLOPS at end-2025 (MIIT (State Council Information Office briefing, 2026-01-21), via Xinhua). Xinhua's report of the briefing says 'more than 1,590 EFLOPS' and states no precision basis. A reprint of the National Data Administration's Digital China Development Report (2025) gives the same 1.59 million PFLOPS as FP16; we have not read that report at source.
- More than 80% of national intelligent compute is built in the eight hubs, measured against the National Data Administration national total of 2.4 million PFLOPS (about 2,400 EFLOPS, July 2026, precision not stated), not MIIT's 2,185 EFLOPS (FP16) (National Data Administration deputy director Yu Ying, via National Business Daily, 2026-07-28).
- Where it is, by region, at end-June 2026: East 55.9%, Central 10.6%, West 32.6%, Northeast 0.9% (MIIT spokesperson Xie Cun, State Council Information Office briefing, 2026-07-20 (transcript on miit.gov.cn), https://www.miit.gov.cn/xwfb/bldhd/art/2026/art_bc4cf76777cb4fd2896082ca2ff7039d.html). MIIT did not say which provinces each region covers, so these regions need not match the resource-hub and demand-hub grouping on this page.
- Computing infrastructure used 196 TWh in 2025, 1.9% of national electricity, up 18.1% (National Data Administration statistics, via China Energy News (People's Daily group), 2026-07-20).
- Forecast: 800 TWh by 2030 (China Electricity Council planning department, via China Energy News, 2026-07-20; industry-body forecast, not an official statistic).

## Hubs

| Hub | Role | Clusters | 2025 solar-utilization tier | Reported scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inner Mongolia | resource hub | Horinger cluster | Inner Mongolia: solar utilization below 95% | Standard racks in service, Horinger New Area: 532,000 racks (2026-06; Xinhua (Hohhot), 2026-06-15); Compute in use, Horinger New Area: more than 126,700 PFLOPS (2026-06; Xinhua (Hohhot), 2026-06-15) |
| Gansu | resource hub | Qingyang cluster | Gansu: more than 10% of solar output curtailed | Standard racks in service, Qingyang park: more than 102,000 racks (2026-07; China Energy News (People's Daily group), 2026-07-06); Compute, Qingyang park: more than 150,000 PFLOPS (2026-07; China Energy News (People's Daily group), 2026-07-06); Green-power aggregation pilot, phase 1 (750 MW wind + 250 MW solar): 1,000 MW (first units connected 2026-01-30; Xinhua (Lanzhou), 2026-01-30) |
| Ningxia | resource hub | Zhongwei cluster | Ningxia: solar utilization below 95% | Standard racks, Zhongwei: 331,000 racks (2026-07; People's Daily, 2026-07-28); Dedicated solar supplying the Zhongwei cloud base, in service: 500 MW (2026-03; Xinhua, 2026-03-18) |
| Guizhou | resource hub | Gui'an cluster | Guizhou: not singled out in the 2025 lists | Compute, Guizhou province (not the cluster alone): 176 EFLOPS (2026-08; Science and Technology Daily, 2026-08-26) |
| Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei | demand hub | Zhangjiakou cluster | Hebei: solar utilization below 95% | no official figure found |
| Yangtze River Delta | demand hub | Eco-Green Demonstration Zone cluster, Wuhu cluster | Shanghai: full solar utilization; Jiangsu: not singled out in the 2025 lists; Zhejiang: full solar utilization; Anhui: not singled out in the 2025 lists | no official figure found |
| Chengdu-Chongqing | demand hub | Tianfu cluster, Chongqing cluster | Sichuan: not singled out in the 2025 lists; Chongqing: full solar utilization | no official figure found |
| Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area | demand hub | Shaoguan cluster | Guangdong: not singled out in the 2025 lists | no official figure found |

## 2025 solar-utilization tiers (published 2026-02)

- More than 10% of solar output curtailed: Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang
- Solar utilization below 95%: Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Yunnan
- Full solar utilization: Chongqing, Fujian, Shanghai, Zhejiang
- Every other province: not singled out in the 2025 lists. Source: National Renewable Energy Consumption Monitoring and Early Warning Center / Power Industry Planning Research and Monitoring Early Warning Center (2026-02-06 annual; 2026-01-12 Jan-Nov), NEA press conferences 2026-07-30 (H1 2026 national rates) and 2025-07-31 (H1 2025), NEA / Science and Technology Daily 2025-07-04 "Has western green-power utilization reached a turning point?", NEA "2025 renewable energy grid-connection and operation" (nea.gov.cn 2026-02-12), NRDC 2025 study on inter-regional power balancing

## Policy

- New data centres in the national hub nodes should get more than 80% of their power from green electricity by the end of 2025. Source: Implementation opinions on the East Data, West Computing project (NDRC, NDA, CAC, MIIT, NEA, 2023-12-25); repeated in the data-centre green, low-carbon action plan (NDRC, MIIT, NEA, NDA, 2024-07-23) (https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202407/content_6964165.htm). Status: Outturn not published. In March 2025 the National Data Administration said it would strive to reach the 80% target in 2025. Status source: National Data Administration General Office deputy director Gao Bo, NEA green-certificate press conference (transcript on nea.gov.cn), 2025-03-18 (https://www.nea.gov.cn/20250318/764a752a063f48e590068bdd521d0cee/c.html).
- Hub data-centre projects must run at a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.2 or better by the end of 2025; new large data centres elsewhere at 1.25 or better. Source: Data-centre green, low-carbon action plan (NDRC, MIIT, NEA, NDA, 2024-07-23) (https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202407/P020240724272072479001.pdf). Status: In March 2025 the eight hubs' data-centre clusters averaged a PUE of about 1.3; the most advanced data centres were down to 1.04. Status source: National Data Administration General Office deputy director Gao Bo, NEA green-certificate press conference (transcript on nea.gov.cn), 2025-03-18 (https://www.nea.gov.cn/20250318/764a752a063f48e590068bdd521d0cee/c.html).
- Move eastern AI training and inference, rendering, offline analysis and backup workloads to the west. Source: Implementation opinions on the East Data, West Computing project (2023-12-25) (https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202401/content_6924596.htm).
- Plan large new-energy bases and national compute hubs together, so compute gathers in renewable-rich regions and new energy is absorbed locally. Source: Action plan on AI and energy empowering each other (NDRC, NEA, MIIT, NDA; dated 2026-04-08) (https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202605/content_7068153.htm).

## In the government's words

> Placing more data centres in the west will sharply raise the share of green energy they use and help absorb western green energy close to where it is generated.
> — NDRC High-Technology Department head, interview posted on ndrc.gov.cn, 2022-03-21 (https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/fzggw/jgsj/gjss/sjdt/202203/t20220321_1319862.html)

## Gaps

- No official racks, compute or investment figures were found for the eastern clusters (Zhangjiakou, Eco-Green Demonstration Zone, Wuhu, Tianfu, Chongqing, Shaoguan) or for the Gui'an cluster on its own.
- No official green-power share is published per cluster, and the end-2025 outturn of the 80% target has not been published.
- Official 2025-26 releases report intelligent compute only; MIIT (2,185 EFLOPS, FP16, end-June 2026) and the National Data Administration (about 2,400 EFLOPS, July 2026) use different bases.
- No official document cites a curtailment volume as the reason for siting a hub. The official language is absorbing renewable energy locally; the curtailment overlay on this page is our join, not a government claim.

## Caveats

- Cluster figures come from state media reporting of local officials (Xinhua, People's Daily, China Energy News), not statistical releases. PFLOPS figures do not state their precision basis and are not comparable across clusters.
- Curtailment tiers are 2025 full-year solar utilization from the national new-energy monitoring centre; H1 2026 provincial rates were not published.

## Data

- https://chinaqueue.com/data/compute.json
- https://chinaqueue.com/data/province_utilization.json