China’s internet firms’ power consumption set to increase by 289% by 2035

China’s computer data centres and rapidly expanding 5G stations could use four times more electricity by 2035, putting Beijing’s carbon neutral goals under stress, a new report by environment group Greenpeace said on Friday.

Electricity use by data centres and 5G base stations in China will grow by an estimated 289% between 2020 and 2035, the report said.

The huge jump in power consumption would mean more carbon emissions as 61% of China’s electricity generation is from coal, the report added.

According to Greenpeace data, the combined electricity consumption by data centres and 5G base stations in China stood at more than 200 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2020.