Green energy focus
Across the high-tech zone, rows of data center buildings line the roads, and a forest of construction cranes gives an indication of the scale of expansion.
The growing demand for electrical power to run countless computer networks is becoming more apparent. Data centers in Ulaanqab consumed about 5.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the first nine months of this year, up 84 percent year-on-year, the city reported.
Inner Mongolia is seeking to make greater use of its wind and solar resources to power the growth. Ulaanqab is advancing projects that match renewable energy generation directly with the demands of the data centers. The projects include energy storage and grid development, which help ensure a stable supply of electricity for power-thirsty data operations.
The 2026 Government Work Report also identified closer coordination between computing capacity and electrical supply as an infrastructure priority.
GDS expects to sign a multiyear agreement this month to purchase green electricity for its Phase 1 Campus project, the company's first site in Ulaanqab. The deal is expected to account for about 70 percent of the project's total power consumption.
Across its Ulaanqab operations, GDS is also exploring direct supply of renewable energy to service the computing load. The idea is to coordinate power generation and the grid with electrical demand, energy storage and computing loads, said Zhang Junwu, the base's manager.
At Centrin Data's low-carbon computing base in Ulaanqab, a 16-kilometer line connects the park to wind and solar facilities that have a combined capacity of 300 megawatts. A 45-MW energy storage system helps smooth out fluctuations on the generation side, while the regional grid provides supplementary electricity when renewable output falls short.
The project began operating in July 2025. It is expected to generate and use 848 million kWh of green electricity annually, reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 580,000 metric tons a year, the company said.
Water efficiency is another consideration for data centers operating in the region.
At the Phase 1 Campus project, cooling relies on dry coolers and a dual-coil refrigerant-pump system. All water used by the cooling system comes from reclaimed supplies, the company said. GDS also controls spray volumes and recovers wastewater to reduce consumption.
At the regional level, Inner Mongolia's regulations prohibit data center projects from using groundwater for cooling.
Ulaanqab is seeking a broader role in the artificial intelligence industry. Its three-year action plan for 2026-28 envisions the city developing into a "token capital" — referring to the small units of text or other data that AI models process and generate — and the city plans to develop an ecosystem spanning token production, measurement, evaluation, security and trading.
