Under the dark blue photovoltaic panel on the edge of the Tengger Desert, the server of the data center is running smoothly along the green power line. The collision between yellow sand and computing power is giving birth to a new industrial form in the northwest desert area. As of September 2026, the cumulative installed capacity of desert photovoltaics in China has exceeded 48 gigawatts, with projects directly connected to supporting computing power accounting for over 12%. The implementation speed of computing power collaboration is continuously accelerating.

In the photovoltaic sand control park in western Inner Mongolia, connected photovoltaic panels not only block the rising sand, but also directly deliver clean electricity to the nearby computing power park through a dedicated line. Local measured data shows that the wind speed in the under board area has decreased by nearly 50%, the vegetation coverage has increased from less than 1% to 27%, and the annual power generation utilization hours are nearly 300 hours higher than those of similar scale photovoltaic projects in the east. The abundant green power resources just match the high electricity demand of the computing power industry.

Relying on the nearby consumption mechanism of desert photovoltaics, the computing power park does not require long-distance cross regional transmission. The on-site conversion rate of green electricity exceeds 92%, and the PUE value of computing power facilities can be stably controlled below 1.2. The annual electricity cost is reduced by more than 20% compared to the traditional grid access mode. Some projects are also equipped with shared energy storage systems, which fully support AI training computing power tasks during peak periods of photovoltaic output, and dispatch energy storage power at night to maintain basic computing power operation, significantly reducing the carbon emission intensity of computing power throughout its entire lifecycle.

The photovoltaic panels above the yellow sand continue to chase light, and the data flow from the data center is transmitted outward through optical cables. The new model of direct connection of desert photovoltaics to computing power is transforming the sunshine resources in the northwest desert area into a green computing power base that supports the operation of the digital economy.Editor/Cheng Liting