The groundbreaking ceremony for the second phase of Baidu Cloud Computing (Yangquan) Center project is held in Yangquan Economic and Technological Development Zone in Yangquan city, on Nov 21. [Photo/Yangquan Daily]

The second phase of construction of the Baidu Cloud Computing (Yangquan) Center, an important intelligent internet of things application pilot development in Yangquan city in North China's Shanxi province, is progressing well in the local Yangquan Economic and Technological Development Zone.

With a planned investment of 1.4 billion yuan ($199.74 million), the second phase covers a construction area of 86,000 square meters. It will offer support in information flows, smart cloud computing and intelligent driving sector, officials said.

Many self-developed leading industry technologies by Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc have been applied to the construction of the second phase of the project.

Officials said these can reduce its infrastructure energy consumption by 70 percent and save electricity of over 100 million kWh, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 50,000 households.

Seizing the opportunity of Shanxi province's development of its digital economy, Yangquan has been furthering cooperation with industry leaders like Baidu Inc in recent years.

This has been to develop intelligent internet of things projects including the Baidu Cloud Computing (Yangquan) Center, Apollo autonomous driving and artificial intelligence city projects.

Officials said the first phase project of the Baidu Cloud Computing (Yangquan) Center has been providing services for search engine, the intelligent cloud, AI and in the field of autonomous driving in the city since 2018.