Decarbonizing data centers through regional bits migration: A comprehensive assessment of China's ‘eastern data, Western computing’ initiative and its global implications

As the world transitions towards a low-carbon economy, the data center industry is under increasing pressure to reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. To address this challenge, the Chinese government has launched an ambitious initiative, called ‘Eastern Data, Western Computing’, which aims to migrate computing workloads from electricity-deficient Eastern regions to renewable-rich Western regions. We therefore conduct a comprehensive assessment of its energy, economic and carbon impacts by analysing three major migration routes. We found that ‘moving bits’ is much more energy efficient than ‘moving watts’, but not necessarily beneficial for decarbonization. The national initiative shows significant energy-saving potential, 332–942 GWh (4.8–12.5 %) annually, attributed to reduced cooling energy and eliminated power-transmission loss. However, no economic benefit is observed if considering the high capital costs for constructing duplicated data centers in Western regions. The carbon emission benefits in different routes are significantly different. Shanghai-Sichuan route could reduce carbon emissions by up to 2803 KtCO₂e (79.6 %) annually, whereas Beijing-Inner Mongolia route exhibits a notable increase (1164 KtCO₂e (24.9 %)) in carbon emissions. Our findings has broader applicability beyond China, extending to other regions worldwide, and can inform the development of effective strategies for decarbonizing global data center industry.