In August, Hohhot already feels a hint of coolness in the morning breeze. On the vast wilderness of the Horinger New Area, cool north winds blow overhead, abundant coal lies beneath the feet, green electricity flows through the air, and surging computing power runs inside the data centers. Wind, solar, electricity, and computing power—four originally unrelated elements—have completed a historic handshake on the land of Inner Mongolia.
From August 19 to 22, 2026, the media research tour on "Computing-Power and Electricity Synergy" (Inner Mongolia Stop) was held in Hohhot. From China Huadian's first national "point-to-point" green electricity direct supply project for data center clusters, to the dual trading of green electricity and green certificates at the Inner Mongolia Power Trading Center; from the distinctive intelligent computing data centers of the three major telecom operators, to the establishment of the Inner Mongolia Ascend Industry Cooperation Alliance; from the "Caoyida" forage large model, to the full-chain digitalization and intelligence of Yili Health Valley—a clear path of computing-power and electricity synergy is unfolding across the northern frontier.
On the very same day the research tour concluded, the 2026 Green Computing Power (Artificial Intelligence) Conference was held in Hohhot. Landmark reports such as the "Green Computing Power Development Research Report (2026)" were released, the National Video Large Model Computing Power Base was inaugurated, and 13 key projects were signed, with a total investment reaching 136.1 billion RMB.
All signals point to the same conclusion: in computing-power and electricity synergy, Inner Mongolia is taking the lead. And in Inner Mongolia, the ultimate destination of computing power has long been more than just electricity.
01Answer from the Northern Frontier: Why is Inner Mongolia Taking the Lead?
The story of computing-power and electricity synergy in Inner Mongolia is, first and foremost, a victory of leveraging natural endowments.
Inner Mongolia is one of the regions in China most abundant in new energy resources. The "Blue Book of Inner Mongolia's Modern Energy Economic Development" points out that the technically exploitable capacity of wind and solar energy resources in Inner Mongolia exceeds 10 billion kW, accounting for 1/4 of the national total, providing ample backup space for green transformation. Meanwhile, Inner Mongolia boasts vast territory and low land prices; the large expanses of flat land required for data center construction are not a scarce resource here.
More crucial is the climate. The average annual temperature in Hohhot is about 6°C, with long and cold winters, resulting in a long natural cooling period. Data centers can significantly reduce cooling energy consumption.
The combination of wind and solar resources, land, and climate gives Inner Mongolia a natural comparative advantage in developing green computing power. However, what truly enables Inner Mongolia to move from "having resources" to "having a system" is the forward-looking layout of policies and the solid implementation of industries.
Before the introduction of national policies, Inner Mongolia had already begun local exploration of computing-power and electricity synergy.
In June 2024, the General Office of the People's Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region issued the "Several Opinions on Supporting the Development of the Green Computing Power Industry in the Horinger Cluster of Inner Mongolia," clearly prioritizing point-to-point green electricity direct supply for the Horinger Cluster, encouraging the construction of integrated wind-solar-storage-computing demonstration projects, and supporting dedicated 220kV/110kV transmission lines to reduce transmission and distribution losses on the public grid.
In January 2026, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Energy Bureau issued the "Implementation Plan for the Development and Construction of Green Electricity Direct Connection Projects for Single Power Users in Inner Mongolia (Trial)," specifying that the Horinger Data Center Cluster and zero-carbon computing power parks are all included in the scope of green electricity direct connection, and both existing and newly built computing power projects can apply.
Just five months later, in June 2026, the Energy Bureau issued the "Announcement on Soliciting Opinions on the Implementation Plan for the Orderly Promotion of the Development and Construction of Multi-User Green Electricity Direct Connection Projects in Inner Mongolia (Trial)," proposing that multiple computing power enterprises within the Horinger Cluster can jointly build and share wind-solar-storage direct connection bases, sharing investments in wind, solar, grid, and energy storage, further reducing power costs for individual projects.
From single users to multi-users, from policy encouragement to implementation plans, Inner Mongolia's green electricity direct supply policy system has rapidly taken shape in just two years. This density and intensity of policy are at the forefront nationwide.
02China Huadian's First National "Point-to-Point" Green Electricity Direct Supply Project Reduces Power Costs by 15%-20%
The implementation of policies requires benchmark projects for validation. China Huadian's first national "point-to-point" green electricity direct supply project for data center clusters is exactly such a national-level demonstration benchmark.
On August 19, the research team first visited the centralized control center of China Huadian Inner Mongolia Energy Co., Ltd. On the massive screen wall, the operational data of wind turbines, solar panels, and energy storage systems were jumping in real-time, making the entire chain of every kilowatt-hour of green electricity from generation to delivery to the data center clearly visible.
Subsequently, the research team drove to the site of the Horinger Huadian direct supply project. In the central control room, the real-time curves of wind, solar, storage, and load were intertwined on the integrated control platform screen; in the step-up substation equipment area, two main transformers were humming, and two dedicated 110kV lines extended from here, directly connecting to the dedicated substation of the data center 41 km away.
Li Chao, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Inner Mongolia Huadian New Energy Branch, introduced to the media that this project is the first batch of green power supply projects for industrial parks in the autonomous region, the first green energy supply project for a "National Integrated Computing Power Network" data center cluster by China Huadian, and a national-level demonstration benchmark in the field of computing-power and electricity synergy. Phase I includes 300 MW of wind power and 60 MW of solar power, equipped with a 64.8 MW / 259.2 MWh (18%/4h) new energy storage system, and was put into operation in December 2024. Phase II (200 MW) and Phase III (300 MW) projects are planned to be completed and put into operation by the end of 2026.
"The electricity generated by wind turbines, solar panels, and energy storage equipment is directly delivered to the data center through two dedicated 110kV lines, ensuring that every kilowatt-hour of green electricity is fully traceable throughout the entire process," Li said.
The project innovatively adopts a "multi-user centralized direct supply + public grid backup guarantee" model, building a dual power supply guarantee mechanism of "green electricity direct supply + public grid backup." The dedicated public grid substation provides power guarantee services exclusively for four data centers: China Telecom, China Mobile, Parallel Technology, and Zhongshu Cloud. When the direct-supplied green electricity fluctuates or the peak load exceeds the direct supply capacity, it can quickly switch to public grid power supply, achieving a dynamic balance between green electricity supply and computing power demand.
More core is the integrated intelligent control platform developed for the project. The platform can collect real-time operational data of wind power, solar power, energy storage, and computing power load at the millisecond level. Combined with the prediction results of wind and solar power generation and load demand, it quickly generates the optimal power distribution plan, achieving millisecond-level linkage of multiple devices. When wind and solar power generation is sufficient, it guides energy storage to charge more and computing power load to use more electricity; when power generation is insufficient, energy storage discharges to make up the gap, while precisely preventing electricity from being fed back into the public grid.
The benefits are tangible. Phase I can output an average of 760 million kWh of traceable green electricity annually, saving 236,900 tons of standard coal, reducing CO₂ emissions by 651,600 tons, and achieving a new energy utilization rate of over 90%. In terms of economic benefits, it helps reduce the comprehensive power consumption costs of data centers by 15%-20%, strongly supporting Horinger New Area in forming a nationally leading comparative advantage of low electricity prices.
03Telecom Operators' Race: The "Inner Mongolia Cluster" of Intelligent Computing Centers
With green electricity secured, where is the computing power? The intelligent computing center clusters of the three major telecom operators are rising in Hohhot.
China Mobile Hohhot Data Center is the largest, most technologically advanced, and most comprehensively guaranteed central node in China Mobile's "4+N+31+X" computing power layout. It was once selected as one of the top ten super projects of central state-owned enterprises, and has fully implemented the integrated source-grid-load-storage-computing synergy system. Tang Xuwen, General Manager of the Computing Power Operation Department of China Mobile Inner Mongolia Co., Ltd., stated that in 2025, the green electricity usage rate of China Mobile Hohhot Data Center reached 88%, and so far this year, it has achieved an 85% green electricity supply.
China Telecom Cloud Computing Inner Mongolia Information Park is among the first batch of computing-power and electricity synergy demonstration projects by the National Data Administration and a benchmark project for green electricity computing power in the autonomous region. The park is equipped with Huadian New Energy's 360 MW integrated wind-solar-storage direct supply pilot project, configured with a 64.8 MW / 259.2 MWh energy storage system, realizing point-to-point direct supply of wind and solar power to the machine room. The local consumption rate of wind and solar power reaches 43%, and combined with green electricity trading, the overall proportion of green electricity exceeds 95%, achieving an annual carbon reduction of approximately 640,000 tons.
Currently, the park has implemented point-to-point green electricity direct supply with China Huadian and is advancing green electricity PPA cooperation with power generation enterprises such as Inner Mongolia Energy Group. It is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and the current proportion of green electricity in the park reaches 92%. Speaking about the fluctuation of wind and solar power output, Meng Hui, Deputy General Manager of the Intelligent Computing Center of China Telecom Inner Mongolia Information Park, introduced: "The park has been rated as a national-level green data center and has obtained the Uptime M80 operation and maintenance management certification, consolidating the foundation for 7x24-hour computing power security operation and maintenance. As a core hub node of the 'East Data and West Computing' project, we are actively collaborating with the Horinger New Area government, power supply, and power generation units to deeply explore the integrated development model of source-grid-load-storage. Currently, Horinger New Area has initiated the construction of a multi-party co-built incremental distribution network, simultaneously supporting the construction of an automated dispatch data network and an energy storage guarantee system, comprehensively building a 'source-grid-load-storage-computing' collaborative dispatch system to resolve the fluctuation of wind and solar power output in a graded and classified manner."
As a key node in the national "East Data and West Computing" project, China Unicom Northwest (Hohhot) Base relies on Inner Mongolia's advantages in region, climate, and energy. It has deployed intelligent computing centers in Xincheng District of Hohhot, Horinger New Area, Jinchuan Development Zone, and Ulanqab City, creating a data center layout with triple-activity in the same city and mutual backup between two cities.
Bu Jianfeng, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom Inner Mongolia Branch, said in an interview that the base plans to build a total of 18 data buildings, focusing on bearing national-level storage, disaster recovery, and high-end computing power businesses, and will be built into a thousand-acre, gigawatt-level intelligent computing center park. At the network level, the base has built an all-optical lossless 400G computing power intelligent network, taking the lead in realizing millisecond-level computing power access in the metropolitan area in Hohhot; it has 400G direct access to the Ulanqab data center cluster for regional coordinated development; the network coverage directly reaches 25 provinces and cities, creating a 2-5-20ms latency circle; China Unicom Inner Mongolia Branch owns two international data gateway bureaus in Erenhot and Manzhouli, providing the strongest international network guarantee for the Inner Mongolia Pilot Free Trade Zone, Token export, and incoming data processing.
The intelligent computing center clusters of the three major telecom operators, along with the landing of a large number of head enterprise projects such as Huawei Cloud, Parallel Technology computing power base, and Sinnet, have brought the total computing power scale put into use in Horinger New Area to over 126,700 P, with intelligent computing power accounting for over 96.4%. This figure ranks at the forefront among the eight national computing power hubs.
04Facilitating Green Electricity Trading to Achieve "Electricity-Certificate-Carbon" Synergy
In computing-power and electricity synergy, institutional innovation on the power side is equally critical.
On the afternoon of August 21, the research team visited the Inner Mongolia Power Trading Center. This is the core operating institution responsible for the market-based trading of Mengxi power. Recently, the National Energy Administration officially approved the Inner Mongolia Power Trading Center to organize green certificate trading, making it the fourth national green electricity certificate trading platform after the China Green Electricity Certificate Trading Platform, Beijing Power Exchange Center, and Guangzhou Power Exchange Center, and also the first provincial power trading institution in China capable of simultaneously organizing green certificate trading and green electricity trading.
The approval of this qualification fills the functional gap in the green certificate organization link in the Mengxi power market, realizing the closed-loop synergy of green electricity trading and green certificate trading on the same platform, marking a substantive step in the multi-market connection of "Electricity-Certificate-Carbon" in Inner Mongolia. Relying on the localization of green certificate trading, it can further guide high energy-consuming industries such as data centers, electrolytic aluminum, and ferroalloys to actively consume green electricity, which will effectively promote the local transformation of the entire value chain of "wind and solar resources—green electricity—green certificates."
On the data element side, the Inner Mongolia Data Trading Center is also innovating. The center started operation in June 2024. Focusing on the four functional positioning of "data product aggregation platform + ecosystem builder + comprehensive service provider + development testing ground," it focuses on fields such as finance, healthcare, energy, agriculture, and animal husbandry, forming a benign cycle of "supply-demand-platform." As of now, it has accumulated 1,106 data merchants, collected 1,027 data products, completed 107 transactions, and achieved a cumulative transaction volume of 212 million RMB.
Recently, the Token trading zone of the Inner Mongolia Data Trading Center was officially launched, marking the comprehensive operation of the autonomous region's compliant data element trading zone for the AI (Artificial Intelligence) and large model industries. The Token trading zone focuses on core services such as Token resource aggregation, supply-demand matching, secure delivery, and full-process traceability, continuously improving the data element circulation system and constantly meeting the needs of large model research and development and industrial digital transformation.
Li Duo, a fifth-level staff member of the Second Department of Market Trading of the Power Trading Company of Inner Mongolia Power Group, introduced that next, the power trading company will conduct in-depth research on computing power production and consumption models, explore establishing a computing-power and electricity synergy mechanism with Token trading platforms such as the Inner Mongolia Data Trading Center, meet the power adjustment needs corresponding to computing power dispatch through medium and long-term trading products of different cycles, and guide computing power buyers to actively cooperate in consuming new energy through price signals, thereby achieving price linkage and coordinated development between the computing power market and the electricity market.
Green electricity, green certificates, Tokens—Inner Mongolia is building a multi-element synergistic market system of "Electricity-Certificate-Carbon-Data," providing institutional guarantee for computing-power and electricity synergy.
05The Ultimate Destination of Computing Power is Not Electricity, But Industry
The ultimate significance of computing-power and electricity synergy lies not in how many data centers are built or how many GPUs are installed, but in whether computing power can truly flow into thousands of industries and be transformed into real productive forces.
In Inner Mongolia, this transformation is already happening. On the "Caoyida" forage standardization large model platform, AI can reconstruct the pricing of a bundle of forage. Sun Lei, the person in charge of the "Caoyida" platform, introduced, "The forage industry has three major pain points: difficulty in pricing non-standard products, information asymmetry in transactions, and difficulty in intervening in supply chain finance. Whether a bundle of forage is good and how much it is worth used to depend entirely on the eyes and experience of experienced workers. 'Caoyida' is the first domestic vertical large model platform for the forage industry, a digital forage trading ecosystem based on a B2B2C forage trading platform that integrates AI (Artificial Intelligence) and big data technologies. Whether it is forage image recognition or quality data measurement, the entire process cannot be separated from stable and efficient computing power support."
The platform utilizes AI visual recognition technology to identify the physical characteristics of forage at the millisecond level through high-definition images and videos collected by mobile phones. Behind this is the deep application of computing power in agriculture and animal husbandry. Without the green computing power foundation in Horinger, the image recognition, data deduction, and model training of the forage large model would be out of the question. And the low-cost green electricity brought by computing-power and electricity synergy makes this computing power application economically viable.
If the forage large model is the "upstream" of computing power empowering agriculture and animal husbandry, then Yili Health Valley is the benchmark for the "downstream."
Walking into Health Valley, the first thing you feel is the shock of "unmanned" operations. Ultra-high-speed filling machines complete the filling of 40,000 packs of fresh milk per hour, KUKA robotic arms operate precisely, and the 5G Industrial Internet achieves "zero-contact" control throughout the entire process. In the upstream smart pasture, smart collars collect cow data in real-time, and the AI system warns of health abnormalities in30 seconds, making breeding precise and controllable. From pasture to factory, from breeding to filling, Yili Health Valley has reconstructed the dairy industry ecosystem with full-chain digitalization and intelligence.
Yang Shuhui, Head of the Supply Chain Module of the Digital Technology Center of Yili Group, stated that Yili Health Valley relies on the Industrial Internet, 5G, and BIM technologies to build a world-class digital factory. Behind this digital and intelligent transformation, computing power support is also indispensable. The AI health warning of the smart pasture, the Industrial Internet dispatch of the factory, and the big data analysis of quality traceability all require a powerful computing power foundation. And the local green computing power cluster in Inner Mongolia provides nearby, low-cost, and green computing power supply for leading enterprises like Yili.
Computing power empowers not only agriculture, animal husbandry, and the dairy industry but also the new energy industry chain itself.
Shengfan Technology focuses on the research and development, production, and sales of cathode materials for power and energy storage lithium batteries. Its products cover multiple fields such as NEV (New Energy Vehicle) and wind and solar energy storage, and it has achieved full coverage of the top 15 domestic and international customers including CATL and BYD.
In terms of intelligent construction, Shengfan Technology has created a "lights-out factory"—some workshops are designed in dust-free, clean, and intelligent modes, and the entire production process achieves automation and full-process intelligent control. Relying on full-process intelligent technology, it stably mass-produces electronic-grade lithium iron phosphate products, meeting the needs of domestic and international high-end power and energy storage battery customers.
From green electricity to energy storage, from energy storage to computing power, and from computing power to intelligent manufacturing, Inner Mongolia is forming a complete industrial chain closed loop of "green electricity—energy storage—computing power—manufacturing." And computing-power and electricity synergy is the key adhesive in this closed loop.
Inner Mongolia's computing-power and electricity synergy is not simply "using green electricity to power data centers," but a systematic reconstruction from energy production to computing power supply, from infrastructure to industrial applications, and from technological innovation to institutional reform.
In this reconstruction, electricity is the foundation, but not the endpoint. Green electricity direct supply solves the "food" problem of computing power, and the intelligent computing center cluster solves the "capacity" problem of computing power. But where will computing power ultimately flow? It flows to the grading of forage, the health warning of dairy cows, the unmanned production of factories, the intelligent dispatch of power grids, and the efficient services of government affairs—flowing to the digital transformation of thousands of industries.
In China, the ultimate destination of computing power has never been electricity; electricity is the starting point of computing power, and industry is its destination.
Looking back from the wilderness of Horinger New Area, the wind turbines are still turning slowly, and the indicator lights of the data centers are still flashing. Those surging bits and flowing watts are playing a new movement of computing-power and electricity synergy on the northern frontier. And the climax of this movement has just begun.
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Managing Editor/Layout: Zhu Wenfeng
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