Embracing Low Carbon Construction in an Ancient Capital

As one of the world's largest telecommunications carriers, China Mobile has helped revolutionize connectivity around the world, enabling more than 2 billion connections between users. Needing a new data hub for the Northwest China region, the carrier set an ambitious goal to build its new Xixian Data Center of China Mobile (Shaanxi) in the ancient capital, Xi'an. And as the speed of data center construction and expansion directly affects the digital experience, the carrier was not going to let its users down. Indeed, in June 2021, the engineers at the Xixian Data Center achieved their construction goal: deliver a green data center with 938 cabinets in just six months.

A data center is complex and sophisticated physical infrastructure that involves many subsystems and thousands of devices. Typically, a data center building with 1000 cabinets would take eight months to construct, and 10 months would be required for equipment installation, commissioning, and acceptance. The construction would also generate dust and debris, not ideal as Xi'an aims to become cleaner and greener. What's more, such a large-scale data center would consume 60 million kWh of electricity and 60 million tonnes of water every year, which indirectly contributing to nearly 30,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

Facing such challenges, the China Mobile (Shaanxi) engineers felt confident that they could achieve a quick service rollout while prioritizing green and low-carbon results. In collaboration with long-term partner Huawei, they decided on a solution that involved combining a prefabricated modular data center with indirect evaporative cooling technology.

The data center was divided into 232 modules with the equipment all prefabricated and preinstalled in the factory. Then, after completing onsite preparation, LEGO-like construction was performed. This allowed engineers to complete the entire service rollout in just six months, with construction waste and dust slashed by 80%, and a material recovery rate exceeding 80%.

Traditional data center cooling systems are also extremely resource-hungry, accounting for more than 30% of total power consumption and using up all of the water resources available to the data center. Huawei's indirect evaporative cooling technology, however, capitalizes on Xi'an's climate, drawing air from the surroundings to cool the facilities. Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, the air compressor is only needed for two months of the year, with the facility relying on natural cooling for the other 10 months, reducing the cooling system's energy consumption by more than 50%. As such, over a 10-year cycle, nearly 60 million kWh of electricity is saved, alongside 400,000 tonnes of water, which translates into slashing carbon emissions by 27,000 tonnes, the equivalent of planting 37,000 trees.

Such impressive feats were only made possible thanks to China Mobile (Shaanxi)'s engineering team, as well as Huawei's innovative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure. And by taking full advantage of the natural climate from the ancient city, the rapid service rollout of just six months was achieved, all while prioritizing environmental protection, serving as a new benchmark for low-carbon data center development.