Computing Power and Sustainability in the People’s Daily
Computing Power and Sustainability in the People’s Daily
Translating the Chinese Communist Party’s perspective on semiconductors
Chip Capitols’ off-week deep-dive into Chinese media examines the PRC’s efforts to leverage digitization in pursuit of its carbon emission reduction goals. This piece is the prelude to Chip Capitol’s Earth Day article examining the role of semiconductors in national sustainable energy policies.
The role of semiconductors in sustainable development is centered around their footprint and handprint. The footprint refers to chipmaking’s intensive use of chemicals and water in the fabrication process, as well as the high energy consumption of computation –namely in data centers. Meanwhile, the handprint refers to the power of semiconductors to enable sustainable solutions through digitization. These solutions include smart energy grids, electric vehicles, manufacturing process optimization, transforming consumer products via the Internet of Things (IoT), and even reducing commute needs through online meeting platforms.
China has for several years prioritized reducing semiconductors’ footprint. The Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Green Data Centers (2019) focused on reducing data centers’ energy usage, and the subsequent Three-Year Action Plan for the Development of New Data Centers (2021) expanded this footprint reduction policy by focusing on the energy use of telecommunications infrastructure connected to China’s data centers.
More recently, however, the Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement Action Plan (2022) has emphasized leveraging semiconductors’ handprint to increase sustainability across other industries. The Action Plan proposes three steps for “greenification” (绿色化) through “digitization” (数字化):
Digital Twin Systems (孪生系统): The Action Plan calls for R&D in cloud computing and artificial intelligence to “digitally track, centrally manage, and intelligently schedule energy consumption and carbon assets.” It calls for industry, research institutions, and universities to conduct joint research in how such methods can apply to existing heavy industries.
Industrial Chain Efficiency: The Action Plan calls for “targeted enablement schemes” in collecting and analyzing energy use across various industries’ supply chains, both upstream and downstream. It suggests using centralized data management and certification to identify and solve inefficiencies.
Resource Library of Solutions (解决方案资源库): The Action Plan lastly suggests building a resource library of solutions to help industries implement typical cases of energy efficiency improvement through digital solutions. It hopes that such a resource would foster development of an “Industrial Internet + Energy Efficiency Management" ecosystem (“工业互联网+能效管理”生态).
The article I translated below appeared in the People’s Daily 人民日报 (the CCP’s official newspaper) and is based on an interview between Xiao Rongmei of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and Cailian 财联社, the People’s Daily’s financial affairs paper.
Chip Capitols will be back next week with a think piece examining how governments support semiconductor research as part of their energy policy. The DOE Office of Science🇺🇸, ARPA-E🇺🇸, Horizon Europe🇪🇺, the Fraunhofer Institute🇩🇪, Plan Nano 2022🇫🇷, China’s Smart City Development Fund🇨🇳, Energy Taiwan🇹🇼, Japan’s Science and Technology Agency🇯🇵… We will dive into it all.
[Any mistakes in translation are my own. Bold, bracketed texts are annotations provided for clarity. The original Chinese text is below.]
Interpretation of Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement Action Plan Series 6:
By: Wang Shaoshao
July 10, 2022, 12:24, source: People's Daily Online
BEIJING, July 10th (Wang Shaoshao, Intern Yin Liuyu) - Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement Action Plan (hereafter referred to as the "Action Plan").
"The Action Plan puts forward a series of key tasks and actions, which will further promote the improvement of digital infrastructure’s energy efficency, fully exploit digital technology’s role in enabling energy savings and efficiency enhancement in various fields, and support the digital and green transformations." Xiao Rongmei of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology said in an interview with People's Daily Finance.
The Action Plan is conducive to promoting energy savings and efficiency improvements in digital infrastructure
In recent years, MIIT and other relevant departments have jointly issued and implemented policy documents such as the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Green Data Centers and the Three-Year Action Plan for the Development of New Data Centers (2021-2023). Each year, MIIT selects and promotes the National Communication Industry Energy-Saving Technology Product Recommendation Catalog. The ministry also continues to carry out the construction of green national data centers, which effectively promotes energy savings and efficiency improvements in the information and communications industry (ICT).
The energy efficiency of digital infrastructure has significantly improved. According to calculations by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (same source hereafter), the energy consumption per unit of information flow in the communication industry has decreased from 54.4 kWh/TB in 2017 to 31.7 kWh/TB in 2020. Xiao Rongmei believes that, along with the rapid development of China's digital economy, the energy consumption of digital infrastructure, such as data centers, communication base stations, and machine rooms [机房], is growing rapidly.
It is estimated that from 2017 to 2020, the annual power consumption of China's ICT data centers above a certain size has increased by an average of 28% per year, and the power consumption of 5G base stations increased by 19% year-on-year in 2020. It is expected that， by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the power consumption of data centers and 5G base stations will have doubled from the 2020 level.
Xiao Rongmei says: "Even as digital infrastructure updates and iterates quickly, some existing facilities’ energy efficiency is relatively low. To that end, the supply capacity of efficient energy-saving technology products for digital infrastructure has room for improvement. All parties agree that we must accelerate the promotion of digital infrastructure’s energy savings and efficiency improvements."
In Xiao Rongmei's view, the Action Plan attaches great importance to promoting digital infrastructure’s energy savings and efficiency improvements. Starting from data centers, communication base stations, communication machine rooms, etc., it uses multiple measures to promote energy efficiency improvements. These measures are extrapolated upon in the Action Plan’s following aspects:
First is to encourage national-level data center companies to explore establishing intelligent matching models for computational load and renewable energy consumption; this serves to improve data centers’ overall energy efficiency and renewable energy use. Newly built data centers should actively benchmark the national green data center evaluation indicators, use efficient energy-saving technology products, and construct green data centers from a high starting point. Existing data centers should actively use advanced energy-saving technology products recommended in the national directory of energy-saving equipment for the industrial and information technology fields, and they should accelerate the adoption and and upgrading of energy-saving and efficiency-improving technology.
Second is that telecommunications companies should strengthen their application of energy-saving technology. They should promote new types of heat dissipation technology, energy-saving software, and innovative hardware applications. Telecommunications companies should promote intelligent power systems, optimize backup power and battery configurations, as well as reduce base station energy consumption. They should actively engage with third-party service providers to diagnose energy-saving potentialities, apply the diagnosis results to implement energy-saving transformations and upgrades to existing facilities, and form diagnoses for typical energy-saving cases to promote in the industry. "This guides the key path of efficiency improvements and green upgrades to communication base stations and communication rooms," said Xiao Rongmei.
The Action Plan is conducive to accelerating the application of digital technology to assist in industrial energy-saving and efficiency improvements.
According to the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), digital technology will reduce global carbon emissions by 20% over the next decade by empowering industries like energy and manufacturing. The European Industrial Strategy (2020) proposes a dual transformation strategy of climate neutrality and digitization, and the Horizon Europe plan provides 720 million euros of support for the digital transformation and decarbonization of the manufacturing and construction industries. China has a good foundation in promoting digital technology–enabled energy-saving and efficiency improvements. Per 2017 estimations, digital technology has enabled industries in China to reduce their carbon emissions by 26% compared with 2012.
"Accelerating the promotion of collaborative digital and green transformations has become a global consensus," Xiao Rongmei believes that digital technology has an accelerating effect on industrial energy-saving and efficiency improvements. Improvements to energy utilization efficiency can be realized through the intelligent management and optimization of green products designs, production process optimization, energy management, process collaboration, and resource scheduling.
Xiao Rongmei said that the Action Plan focuses on a series of tasks in key directions such as the cloud/digital transformation of equipment processes, energy efficiency data collection and analysis, solution supply [解决方案供给], and application model innovation. It also proposes to accelerate the construction of resource libraries and other supporting measures, targeting key points and promoting digital energy efficiency improvement and upgrading.
The first point is to promote R&D for digital technology applications in the field energy-saving and efficiency improvement. We should actively build a digital twin system [孪生系统] for energy efficiency management. Relevant enterprises, research institutions, and universities should combine industry practices and the characteristics of digital to use technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence to digitally track, centrally manage, and intelligently schedule energy consumption and carbon assets. [These can] form a set of typical cases of digital technology empowering industrial energy conservation and efficiency improvement.
Second, we should increase the supply of digital green collaborative development solutions in concert with industry and enterprises’ actual needs for improving energy efficiency. We should provide targeted enablement schemes to meet the specific needs of digital energy efficiency improvement in different sub-fields and sectors. We must fully leverage existing local energy efficiency management and service platforms, strengthen energy data collection, analysis, and certification for industrial enterprises and the industrial chain upstream and downstream. We must also establish an energy efficiency data management and interaction mechanism for the industrial chain both upstream and downstream.
Third, we should perfect a panoramic view of digital energy efficiency improvement in key industries and make a resource library of solutions. We will advance the development of application scenarios and solution supplying at the industry level, accelerate the digital transformation and cloud-based use of key energy-consuming equipment and processes, and accelerate construction of the "industrial internet + energy efficiency management" ecosystem. We will actively explore and form a set of typical application scenarios using "industrial internet + energy efficiency management" in key industries, driving ubiquitous connectivity, coordinated collection, analysis, and operation of upstream and downstream resources in the industrial chain.
In Xiao Rongmei's view, the Action Plan designates the direction for improving the energy efficiency of digital infrastructure and upgrading [other industries] with digital energy efficiency. This helps to build consensus, fully mobilize the forces of all parties, and promote the digital, green, and collaborative transformation of industry to a new level of energy efficiency improvement.
(Editor in Chief: Lu Jing, Gao Lei)
《工业能效提升行动计划》系列解读之六：
数字化绿色化协同促进工业节能提效王绍绍
2022年07月10日12:24 | 来源：人民网人民网北京7月10日电 （王绍绍、实习生尹柳玉）日前，工业和信息化部、发展改革委、财政部、生态环境部、国资委、市场监管总局六部门联合印发了《工业能效提升行动计划》（以下简称《行动计划》）。
“《行动计划》提出了一系列重点任务和行动，将进一步推进提升数字基础设施能效水平，充分发挥数字化技术对各领域节能提效的赋能作用，助力数字化绿色化协同转型。”中国信息通信研究院肖荣美在接受人民网财经采访时表示。
《行动计划》有利于推动数字基础设施节能提效
近年来，工业和信息化部会同相关部门发布实施《关于加强绿色数据中心建设的指导意见》《新型数据中心发展三年行动计划（2021-2023年）》等政策文件，每年遴选推广《国家通信业节能技术产品推荐目录》，并持续开展国家绿色数据中心建设，有力推进信息通信行业节能提效。
数字基础设施能源利用效率显著提高，据中国信通院测算（下同），通信行业单位信息流量电能耗从2017年的54.4 kWh/TB下降到2020年的31.7kWh/TB，肖荣美认为，随着我国数字经济快速发展，数据中心、通信基站和机房等数字基础设施能源消费呈较快增长态势。
据测算，2017至2020年我国信息通信领域规模以上数据中心年耗电量年均增长28%，2020年5G基站耗电量同比增速达到19%。预计到“十四五”末，数据中心、5G基站耗电量将在2020年基础上翻一番。
“同时，数字基础设施更新迭代快，部分已建设施能效水平相对偏低，数字基础设施高效节能技术产品供给能力有进一步提升空间。加快推进数字基础设施节能提效，已经成为各界共识。”肖荣美说。
在肖荣美看来，《行动计划》高度重视推动数字基础设施节能提效，以数据中心、通信基站、通信机房等为落脚点，多措并举推动能效提升。具体体现在以下几个方面：
一是鼓励全国性布局数据中心企业探索建立算力负载可再生能源消纳智能匹配调度等模式，提高数据中心整体能效和可再生能源利用水平。新建数据中心要主动对标国家绿色数据中心评价指标要求，应用高效节能技术产品，高起点建设绿色数据中心。已建数据中心要积极应用国家工业和信息化领域节能技术装备产品推荐目录中的先进节能技术产品，加快节能提效技术改造升级。
二是基础电信企业要加强节能技术应用，推进新型散热技术、软件节能技术，以及硬件技术创新应用，推广智能化电源系统、优化备电蓄电池配置等，降低基站能耗。要积极引入第三方服务机构开展节能诊断，应用诊断结果实施已建设施节能改造升级，形成节能诊断典型案例并在行业内推广。“这指引了通信基站和通信机房重点领域能效提升绿色升级重点方向。”肖荣美说。
《行动计划》有利于加快数字技术应用助力工业节能提效
据全球电子可持续发展推进协会（GeSI）称，未来十年数字技术通过赋能能源、工业等行业，将减少全球碳排放的20%。《欧洲工业战略（2020）》提出气候中立和数字化双重转型战略，并在“地平线欧洲”计划中提供7.2亿欧元支持制造业和建筑业数字化转型减碳。我国推进数字技术赋能节能提效具有较好的基础。据测算，2017年数字技术赋能我国工业减少碳排放总量比2012年增加了26%。
“加快推进数字化绿色化协同转型已成全球共识。”肖荣美认为，数字技术对工业节能提效具有加速作用，通过对产品绿色设计、生产工艺优化、能源管控、工序协同和资源调度等实施智慧管理与优化，实现能源利用效率提升。
肖荣美表示，《行动计划》聚焦设备工序上云/数字化改造、能效数据采集分析、解决方案供给、应用模式创新等重点方向提出系列任务，并提出加快构建资源库等配套措施，瞄准重点，靶向发力，推动数字能效提档升级。
一是推动数字技术在节能提效领域的研发应用，积极构建面向能效管理的数字孪生系统。有关企业、研究机构、高校要结合行业实践和数字技术特点，利用云计算、人工智能等技术实现能源消耗和碳资产的数字化追踪、集中化管理、智能化调度，形成一批数字技术赋能工业节能提效典型案例。
二是结合行业、企业能效提升实际需求，加大数字化绿色化协同发展解决方案供给力度。面向不同子领域、不同环节数字节能提效具体需求，提供针对性赋能方案。充分发挥地方现有能效管理与服务平台作用，强化工业企业和产业链上下游用能数据采集分析与数据认证，构建产业链上下游的能效数据管理与交互机制。
三是完善重点行业数字能效提升全景图，打造解决方案资源库。从行业层面推进应用场景开发和解决方案供给，加快重点用能设备、工序等数字化改造和上云用云，加速构建“工业互联网+能效管理”生态。积极探索形成一批重点行业领域“工业互联网+能效管理”典型应用场景，驱动产业链上下游资源泛在互联、联动采集分析和协同运作。
在肖荣美看来，《行动计划》为数字基础设施节能提效以及数字能效提档升级指明了方向，有助于凝聚共识，充分调动各方力量切实推进数字化绿色化协同转型，推动工业能效提升再上新台阶。
(责编：鲁婧、高雷)