Chinese solar firm Jinko Power, a subsidiary of the larger Jinko Solar group, is planning to develop a 1GW data center in Ningxia, western China, powered directly by a solar plant.
According to reporting from Nikkei, the company signed a framework investment agreement with the Zhongwei municipal government to construct the desert data center.
Reportedly, the project will cost an estimated RMB 24.5 billion ($3.6 billion) and is more than 534,000 square meters (5.75 million sq ft). The company plans to deploy approximately 50,000 standard racks in three phases, marking its entry into the data center market.
The project has a provisional completion date in 2028. However, the agreement is preliminary and subject to multiple approvals.
The project is in alignment with China’s ‘Eastern Data, Western Computing' initiative, which seeks to relocate data centers to China’s western states, due to the abundance of clean energy potential and more temperate climate, improving cooling efficiency.
Headquartered in Shanghai, China, Jinko Solar is one of the largest solar panel manufacturers in the world. Its affiliate Jinko Power, which is its utility-scale solar arm, has an installed capacity of 6.5GW, with a domestic pipeline of more than 30GW.