Extra tags: Data Centre
Alibaba Group Holding Limited has joined the Low Carbon Patent Pledge (LCPP), an international platform that encourages patent sharing for low-carbon technologies, in order to accelerate green technology adoption and foster collaborative innovation by making nine key patents for green data centre technology available for free to third parties. Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Group's digital technology and intelligence backbone, wants to have all of its worldwide data centres running fully on renewable energy by 2030, beginning with improvements to five of its hyper-scale data centres in China.
The initiative, which joins a coalition of various pledgors from around the world, is the first time Alibaba Group has pledged to make critical intellectual property on sustainability widely available, reaffirming its long-standing commitment to achieving a low-carbon and sustainable future for society through broader cooperation. The nine patents on offer include part of Alibaba's green data centre innovations, such as the unique "soaking server" cooling method that Alibaba Cloud has used in its data centres since 2015. When compared to standard mechanical cooling, this non-mechanical cooling method saves approximately 70% of energy.
“We believe technology innovation is a key driver in transitioning to the low-carbon circular economy of the future. As a pioneer and global technology leader, we are committed to taking broader social responsibility to use technology to level the playing field and to empower the wider social groups, creating long-term value. We are excited to join the pledge as a way to encourage a collective approach to build a sustainable and inclusive future for the society and environment through open collaboration, joint innovations and mutual inspiration.” said Dr. Chen Long, Vice President of Alibaba Group and Chair of Alibaba’s Sustainability Steering Committee.
Low Carbon Pledge Patent was launched on Earth Day 2021 by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Microsoft, and Meta with the mission of promoting low carbon technologies and fostering collaborative innovation. Professor Jorge Contreras, academic expert on patent pledges, notes “The addition of these companies strengthens the Low Carbon Patent Pledge and reflects the reality that all sectors of industry can contribute to the effort to accelerate the transition to low carbon energy sources.”
Greening Data Centres with Technology
As an infrastructure provider for a green economy, Alibaba Cloud is also committing to have its global data centres running entirely on clean energy by 2030 by employing cutting-edge green technologies in these facilities.
Shanyuan Gao, General Manager of Alibaba Cloud Infrastructure’s Internet Data Centre Division, said: “Eco-friendly data centres are critical to Alibaba’s sustainable operations. We employ cutting-edge green technologies in its hyper-scale facilities, of which liquid cooling and renewable electricity storage make a considerable difference in reducing carbon emissions. For instance, In our Hangzhou data centre, server clusters are submerged in specialised liquid coolant, which quickly chills the IT hardware,”
The similar mechanism is used at Alibaba Cloud's Zhangbei data centre, which helped it acquire a Green Power Consumption Certificate from the Beijing Electric Power Exchange Centre in 2021, recognising it as China's first heat-pump facility. Alibaba Cloud believes that as it develops a secure and resilient global infrastructure network, innovative data centre technology will become the new standard, with liquid cooling being promoted across China and in additional nations in the future.
While clean energy solves many problems, it also comes with its own set of problems. Solar and wind energy supplies can be unreliable, supplying full power when the weather is nice and windy but failing to produce when the weather changes. Alibaba Cloud is looking into carbon management solutions to enable it take advantage of energy trading programmes while also planning a more stable energy supply. Alibaba Cloud is also looking into other cutting-edge technologies, such as pumping water to store energy, which is a common means of storing renewable energy until it is needed.
To help cut electricity use further, Alibaba launched its first proprietary chip, the Yitian 710. The Yitian 710 can accommodate up to 60 billion transistors in each chip, translating into a 50% higher energy efficiency ratio compared with other models. This will make transitioning to clean energy easier as it reduces demand on unpredictable solar and wind energy sources.
