Web Host Industry Review has a post on US DOE LBNL partnering with China to green data center. I have had the pleasure of visiting LBNL labs data center efficiency group, and it is a good group to work with for this type of effort for China. There are also some interesting facts in the post you should think about to understand the China Data Center industry.

First the role of Telcos in data center development.

China differs from the US in that the telecommunications industry has taken the lead over the IT industry in dominating the data center market.

10% of the USA data center capacity is for the Federal government, and there is a huge market for data centers that have nothing to do with the gov’t. China’s government is the #1 player in data center capacity build out, and you will need to fit in China government’s plans.

Another major difference between China's data center market compared to the US is that most data centers in China are owned and run by the government.

LBNL points out the government influence has an advantage to green the data center in that they only need to convince the government to make the changes.

Sector[sic] Sarton says that this difference could be advantageous if they can "convince the government to make the changes... they can make the changes quicker."

Berkeley Lab is also hoping to work with China to install technologies such as warm-water liquid cooling and DC power through its partner agency.

So what is the project?

The project is being run by Dale Sartor, head of the Building Technology's Applications Team, and Bo Shen of the China Energy Group.

The Berkeley Lab scientists will work with the China Institute of Electronics and the China Electronics Standardization Institute to "share best practices, case studies and other material" to help form standards and training programs for China's data center industry.

Sarton says that China has a wide range of energy efficiency within its data centers but ultimately shows "a lot of room for improvement."

The original article referenced is here in Physorg.com.

Berkeley lab to help China improve energy efficiency of data centers
December 21, 2010
The amount of energy consumed by data centers is increasing rapidly around the world, and China is no exception. With its growing information technology and telecom industries and its emerging status as a supercomputer power, China continues to expand its data center capacity. In an effort to help reduce carbon emissions, the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a world leader in high-performance buildings, has started working with China to improve the energy performance of its data centers.