The fourth annual Green Computing Power (Artificial Intelligence) Conference convened on August 22, 2026, on the Cilechuan Grassland in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, drawing attention to the city's strategic importance in China's computing power landscape. With the theme 'Building Synergy between Computing and Electricity, Exploring New Horizons in Token Economy, and Creating the Future of Artificial Intelligence Together,' the conference unveiled the Green Computing Power Development Research Report (2026) and showcased pilot initiatives such as 'millisecond-level urban computing' applications. Major companies, including ByteDance and Cambricon, signed agreements worth tens of billions, focusing on green intelligent computing centers and token factories.
Hohhot's appeal stems from its abundant renewable energy and favorable climate. Wind turbines on the prairie generate 12 kilowatt-hours per rotation, which is transmitted via a dedicated 41-kilometer line to nearby data centers, bypassing the public grid. The city's average annual temperature of 7°C and over 200 days suitable for direct outdoor cooling reduce cooling costs by more than 20%. With electricity prices around 0.36 yuan per kilowatt-hour, a large-scale GPU cluster can save approximately 50 million yuan annually. Currently, Hohhot's total computing capacity reaches 150,000 P, with green electricity usage exceeding 80%.
However, integrating variable renewable energy with continuous computing loads requires innovative solutions. The 'computing-electricity synergy' mechanism, developed with China Huadian Corporation, uses a 360,000-kilowatt integrated wind-solar-storage station. A collaborative control platform dynamically allocates power based on real-time data, adjusting storage charging and computing tasks to balance supply and demand. This bidirectional interaction transforms the traditional unidirectional power supply model.
On the consumption side, efficiency measures are in place. The Hohhot data center operated by China Mobile recovers waste heat from nearby power plants for cooling, improving its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) from 1.315 to 1.209, saving 560,000 kilowatt-hours annually. Full operation of two machine halls is projected to save 10 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and 150,000 tons of water each year.
Hohhot now hosts 62 computing center projects, including data centers of China's three major telecom operators, 16 financial institutions, and computing nodes from Huawei, ByteDance, Kuaishou, and others. Upstream, 45 manufacturing enterprises produce servers, cabinets, and sensors locally. According to a recently published three-year action plan, by 2028 Hohhot aims to establish 10 token factories capable of producing 20 trillion tokens daily, making intelligent services directly accessible to customers.
The conference underscored Hohhot's role in China's 'East Data West Computing' project, which redirects computing demand from eastern regions to resource-rich western areas. The Horinger data center cluster in Hohhot is among the top ten national clusters. As the prairie winds continue to blow, Hohhot is committed to converting every kilowatt-hour of green electricity into stable and reliable computing power, driving the future of artificial intelligence.
