How Alibaba Built Two Record‑Fast Green Data Centers in One Year

Within a single year, Alibaba constructed two world‑class green data centers in Zhangbei, leveraging the region's abundant renewable energy to accelerate cloud computing development in the Beijing‑Tianjin‑Hebei area.

On September 12, 2016, both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Zhangbei Data Center were inaugurated, becoming Alibaba’s key infrastructure for core services in northern China and expected to play a crucial role during the upcoming Double 11 shopping festival, serving up to two million SMEs with cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence services.

Alibaba Group CTO Zhang Jianfeng emphasized the need for highly available, large‑scale, replicable internet infrastructure, describing the efficient data center as the strong heart of Alibaba’s computing platform and expressing confidence in further integrating green energy into commercial infrastructure.

Local officials highlighted the project’s significance for rapid information‑technology development in the region, noting that Alibaba’s involvement as both builder and user was essential for the data center’s success.

Clean Energy On‑Site Transformed into Powerful Computing Power

Zhangbei boasts rich wind and solar resources, with installed wind capacity exceeding 2.33 GW and a planned photovoltaic capacity of 140 MW, generating an annual output of 6 billion kWh to supply continuous green electricity to the data centers.

By locating the large data center at a renewable‑energy hub, clean power is directly converted into massive computing capability—a first in China—shifting the focus from “transporting coal” to “transmitting data”.

During the inauguration, Alibaba and State Grid’s Hebei branch signed a cooperation agreement to pilot flexible DC power supply, marking China’s first project that integrates a smart grid with cloud computing, advancing on‑site clean‑energy consumption.

New Wind Cooling, “Supercomputing” and Other Technological Innovations

The Zhangbei Data Center achieves an average annual Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.25, with a minimum of 1.13, far below the domestic average of 2.5, meaning it delivers the same computing power with roughly half the energy consumption.

On the software side, the center runs Alibaba Cloud’s proprietary Feitian operating system, which can link tens of thousands of servers into a single “supercomputer”, delivering maximal computational efficiency for massive real‑time data processing.

Exploiting Zhangbei’s low temperature and clean air, the facility extensively uses fresh‑air natural cooling and water‑side natural cooling technologies, limiting traditional compressor‑based air‑conditioning to only about 15 days per year and reducing cooling energy consumption by 59%.

The advanced intelligent control system continuously monitors temperature, humidity, and air quality, seamlessly switching among cooling modes, making it the first Chinese data center to achieve fully automated fresh‑air cooling.

One Year to Build Two Data Centers – A World Record

Both phases of the Zhangbei Data Center were completed within a year, finishing in June 2016, whereas comparable domestic projects typically require two to three years. Despite a six‑month winter construction hiatus, Alibaba accomplished this feat through a fully modular design.

“Our secret lies in a completely modular design philosophy—mechanical, cooling, and even building components are prefabricated in factories and assembled on site like LEGO bricks,” explained Zhou Ming, head of Alibaba’s Infrastructure Business Unit.

Alibaba’s experience in green data centers dates back to the Qiandao Lake facility, which pioneered lake‑water cooling, and the Hangzhou data center, which received the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s “AAAA” green certification.