China's wind, solar, and storage giants race to supply green power directly to AI data centers via long-term contracts, unlocking 'computing-power synergy'.
Driven by the exponential growth of AI computing power and China's "dual carbon" goals, direct green power supply to data centers is emerging as a new frontier that wind, solar, and energy storage companies are racing to enter. This year, multiple landmark projects—including China Datang's Zhongwei solar plant and TBEA's Qingyang green power aggregation project—have come online, with direct-supply electricity prices nearly halved compared to grid purchases in eastern China. Companies such as Envision Group, JinkoSolar, Mingyang Smart Energy, and TGOOD are pursuing six technical pathways, from physical direct connections to power distribution architecture innovation and computing-power dispatch, shifting data centers from "passive power consumption" to "active dispatch." On the policy front, China's National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Administration have issued rules allowing dedicated lines for new energy direct supply, clearing grid barriers. Industry data shows that self-built green power direct supply can reduce electricity costs by 20% to 30%. With strong downstream demand, this "computing-power synergy" model is entering a phase of rapid expansion.
Artificial intelligence computing demand is growing at an exponential rate, and power supply has become a critical bottleneck constraining industry development. Driven by both "dual carbon" targets and cost pressures, the emerging model of green power direct supply to data centers has experienced explosive growth over the past two years. An increasing number of wind, solar, and storage companies are rushing into this track, seeking to reconstruct the energy foundation of data centers through a new model of "computing follows power, source and load integrated."
Yang Haoqin, head of product line management at Envision Energy's AIDC division, told reporters: "Green power direct-connected data centers have experienced relatively rapid growth over the past one to two years and are still in a high-speed development phase."
The end of computing power is electricity, and the end of electricity is increasingly pointing toward green power. At the 2026 Summer Davos Forum, Qian Jing, Vice President of JinkoSolar, offered a blunt assessment: "In the AI era, the competitiveness of data centers depends solely on electricity price costs and the proportion of green power." She believes that the explosive growth of AI is bringing exponential electricity consumption, and the reserves and regional endowment differences of traditional fossil energy can no longer support the massive demand of data centers, making renewable energy a rigid necessity.
**From Power Stations to "Computing Power Stations"**
The business model for green power direct supply to data centers is primarily divided into physical direct supply and virtual trading. Physical direct supply involves new energy power generation companies building dedicated transmission lines to directly supply electricity to data centers; virtual trading involves both parties signing long-term power purchase agreements through power trading centers, which is more suitable for small and medium-sized data centers.
Under this trend, traditional new energy operators are also accelerating their transformation. A Shenzhen-listed company originally engaged in solar power station operation and supporting energy storage business is actively leveraging its own solar assets to provide integrated solar-storage-computing node services. Its business head stated that in recent years, some of the company's power stations have faced insufficient consumption, while market demand for distributed computing power is booming. The company has thus evolved from building power stations to building "computing power stations," directly converting green electricity into computing power.
This logic of "local consumption" is the core of the strong synergy between green power and data centers. Yang Haoqin analyzed that among high-energy-consumption scenarios in China, data centers feature large single-site scale and highly stable electricity consumption, with load curves trending toward a straight line over long time horizons and being highly predictable. This means that as long as upstream new energy investment, construction, and operation players match appropriately, the electricity generated can achieve excellent consumption rates.
**Landmark Projects Roll Out, Electricity Price Cost Advantage Emerges**
Since the beginning of this year, multiple landmark green power direct supply projects have come online, marking the industry's formal transition from planning to reality.
On May 2 this year, China Datang's 500,000-kilowatt solar power station at the Zhongwei Cloud Base in Ningxia officially began operation, becoming China's first large-scale "computing-power synergy" green power direct supply project. The project supplies power through both dedicated green power lines and long-term purchase agreements, with the direct-supply green power price at just 0.36 yuan/kWh—nearly half the cost compared to average electricity prices in eastern China.
Earlier, the first phase of the Gansu Qingyang "East Data West Computing" industrial park green power aggregation pilot project, constructed by TBEA, also commenced. With an installed capacity of 1 million kilowatts—750,000 kilowatts of wind and 250,000 kilowatts of solar—the project will deliver green power from Gansu directly to eastern China. As one of the eight hub nodes of China's national "East Data West Computing" project, the Qingyang data center cluster has registered 28 major projects with a total investment of 45.4 billion yuan. By utilizing local wind and solar resources to build an integrated "source-grid-load-storage" system, the partially operational China Energy Engineering data center has achieved a green power supply rate exceeding 80% and a power usage effectiveness ratio as low as 1.25.
In Inner Mongolia, Envision Group and Tencent have launched the world's first 100% green power direct-supply data center in Chifeng, reducing comprehensive energy costs by over 40% and achieving annual carbon emission reductions of 180,000 tons. An Envision executive also revealed that the company is collaborating with a leading tech firm to build the world's largest zero-carbon AIDC park in Ulanqab, expected to be delivered this year. Envision Group CEO Zhang Lei further announced the "Mission Gobi" plan in June, declaring a goal to build 5GW of high-proportion green power direct-supply data centers in global Gobi Desert regions by 2030, requiring over 80% of annual electricity to be generated directly from wind farms and delivered straight to server rooms.
GDS Holdings also signed an agreement with the Ulanqab municipal government to invest 30 billion yuan over five years to build a GW-level data center cluster, requiring green power coverage exceeding 80%. China Data's local source-grid-load-storage integrated project is supported by 200 megawatts of wind power and 100 megawatts of solar power, with China Bohai Bank already disbursing a first loan of 191 million yuan for its second phase.
Industry data shows that self-built new energy power stations or long-term green power direct supply agreements can reduce electricity expenses by approximately 20% to 30% compared to purchasing power from the public grid.
**Policy Clears Barriers, Six Technical Pathways Emerge**
The accelerated development of green power direct supply cannot be separated from strong policy support. On May 8 this year, four government bodies including the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Action Plan on Promoting Two-Way Empowerment of Artificial Intelligence and Energy," clarifying the planning path for computing-power synergy and proposing to initially establish a secure, green, and economical energy security system by 2027.
A more critical breakthrough came from the removal of grid barriers. In May, the NDRC and NEA issued notices orderly promoting the development of multi-user green power direct-supply projects, substantially lowering the barriers to entry for wind, solar, and storage companies seeking to serve data centers.