From the Gobi Desert to Canada’s north: This Chinese visionary is betting on AI to power this country’s future

Along the edge of China’s Gobi Desert, giant wind stations managed by artificial intelligence are producing electricity at a fraction of the cost of coal power.

Now, the visionary behind the technology says he’s ready to replicate that model in remote parts of Canada.

Lei Zhang is the billionaire founder of Envision, a Shanghai-based green energy company that recently became the second-largest manufacturer of wind turbines in the world.

To many in China’s industry and abroad, Zhang has a Steve Jobs-like aura — a rare knack for generating enthusiasm for future power concepts and possessing the industrial strength to turn those dreams into reality.

Zhang recently invited a CBC News crew to Envision’s head office in China, where he outlined proposals that have the potential to solve Canada’s looming energy crisis — but also fears that tapping into Chinese AI technology could give his government a “kill switch” on Canada’s power grid.

With the cost of green energy production falling by more than 90 percent in recent decades, Zhang says China has crossed a historic threshold: It is now cheaper to build new solar and wind facilities than to keep old coal-fired plants running.

“Green electrons from renewables are actually outperforming…fossil fuel electrons,” Zhang said.

He says that this change has civilizational implications.

“I use the same analogy as Chinese paper-making technology from a thousand years ago,” Zhang said. “By providing such technology, we can greatly reduce the cost of knowledge and everyone is able to share that knowledge.”

He said China’s advances in renewable technology “provide new abundance of access to infinite, affordable renewable energy for everyone, for every country, for every company.”

It’s a sublime, head-scratching concept that requires some unpacking. But Zhang says the essential ingredient making green energy systems suddenly affordable and functional is AI.

He says it would not be possible to build an energy superpower based on frequently intermittent wind patterns without an AI brain directing the system.

“Today, we only need a minute to know the outcome of the next two weeks’ weather patterns, to make better forecasts. An AI agent is sending energy flows and balancing the grid at the millisecond level – no human has been able to do that,” Zhang said.

Envision’s signature project is an off-grid, closed-loop facility in China’s Inner Mongolia region, north of Beijing. Located on the edge of the Gobi Desert, the plant, due to open in July 2025, uses a 1.4 gigawatt (GW) wind turbine to produce hundreds of thousands of tonnes of net-zero hydrogen and ammonium annually.

Envision says several AI data centers in China are already harnessing the clean energy produced by the facility and there are plans to work on an 800-kilometre pipeline to deliver green hydrogen to larger population centres. There, it can be used to generate clean electricity bypassing the existing, aging transmission grid.

“We can definitely … replicate this in Canada,” Zhang said, noting that Canada’s vast forests create endless opportunities for similar off-grid energy plants that could power the country for decades to come.

“As long as the wind is blowing, the answer is in the air.”

Zhang confirmed that he discussed his plans directly with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on his visit to China in January. He also says he has had advanced discussions with other Canadian stakeholders in several provinces, though he would not officially say who.

At that time in his press conference in Beijing, Carney said Canada is open to such cooperation.

“Over the next 15 years, Canada intends to double our energy grid through major investments in hydroelectric, solar, nuclear and wind power,” he said.

“This creates tremendous opportunities for Chinese participation in these investments, including energy storage and offshore wind.”

Despite Zhang’s belief in renewable energy to generate energy, despite the “abundance”, China’s government has continued to open new coal plants. China was responsible in 2023 95 percent of all new coal power construction worldwide. In 2025, brought the country More than 78 GW of coal-fired power generation came online – almost as much as India had done in an entire decade.

Greenpeace says the country is relying on coal as a safety net against power shortages, even as it promotes renewable energy.

“China’s energy policy today operates on two parallel tracks,” said Grace Gao, climate and energy project director at Beijing-based Greenpeace East Asia.

“On one track, we may see rapid deployment and expansion of renewables. On the other track, we may still see coal gaining approval.”

He said some Chinese provinces, particularly those with heavy industry, have been reluctant to ban fossil fuels altogether out of fear of potential economic risks. He said President Xi Jinping’s government has so far refused to set a deadline for the retirement of Chinese coal plants.

“I think China should consider setting a clear timeline for phasing out coal power,” Gao said. “This could send a much clearer signal not only to the market but also to the local government to stop approving new coal projects in the future.”

Greenpeace is also not sold on the remote mega-energy center model. The environmental advocacy group believes systems closer to where people live are more efficient — such as China’s rooftop solar program, which Gao says has turned 300 million farmers into electricity producers.

“Local farmers can use more solar energy than they produce. And they can also sell the electricity back to the grid to earn extra money.”

For potential allies like Canada, the “AI brain” that powers Envision’s system is what worries critics. If Canada adopts Chinese-operated energy systems, it is not just buying turbines, it is installing a Chinese operating system at the heart of the national infrastructure.

“We have to protect ourselves from the Communist Chinese,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said In mid-March regarding the risk of Canadian secrets falling into the hands of foreign governments.

Ford has also called Chinese-made electric vehicles potential “spy cars” because the cars’ technology could be controlled by anyone in Beijing – a claim Chinese officials deny.

Envision’s Zhang told CBC News the Chinese-made technology will not pose any security risks to Canadian users.

“Of course we need to work with local partners, we’re working with local regulators, we’re working for full transparency,” he said.

China’s embrace of green energy stands in contrast to the United States’ complete retreat from it.

US President Donald Trump said on March 4, “I have never seen a Chinese wind farm.” “They sell them to useless people in Europe.”

For Zhang, the shift to renewable energy is not a matter of political fashion or “sucker” deals – its inevitability is dictated by the laws of physics.

China is busy building the brains that control these systems — and waiting to see if Canada is willing to plug in.