Zhang Jianhua, director of China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), gave details that the country plans to speed up green energy development in 2021, with priorities on wind and solar power, as reported by Sina on December 23. Meanwhile, Zhang stated that the country will continue furthering cleaner use of coal energy, and build more natural gas storage clusters, and more hydropower and nuclear power stations in the next five years. In the speech, Zhang also emphasized the importance to apply new technology in the energy industry, including 5G, blockchain and BeiDou Navigation Satellite System-powered (BDS) services.

According to the latest white paper released under State Council, China’s installed electricity generation capacity reached 2.01bn kilowatts (kW) by the end of 2019, jumping 75% from 2012, with electricity output rising 50% to 7.5tr kilowatt hours (kWh) during the same period. Notably, the overall installed capacity of renewable energies came to 790m kW in 2019 in China, accounting for around one-third of the global total, including 356m kW of hydropower, 210m kW of wind power, 204m kW of solar photovoltaic power and 23.69m kW of biomass power capacity. Moreover, a total of 65.93m kW of nuclear power plants are under construction or were put into operation domestically in the same year, ranking the second in the world. Since 2010, the country has invested at least USD818bn in renewable energy generation. As of 2019, non-fossil sources represent 15.3% of China’s energy consumption, an increase of 5.6 percentage points from the 2012 level.

Meanwhile, based on new targets set by Chinese President Xi Jinping, China intends to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and turn carbon neutral by 2060. By 2030, the country will plan to increase the ratio of non-fossil fuel in its total primary energy consumption to 25%, and nearly triple its wind and solar power capacity to above 1.2bn kW. Citing analysts from HSBC , this means that China should lift its newly installed wind and solar capacity to at least 100m kW per year. For reference, the country added 26.79m kW of wind power capacity in 2019, up 26.7% YoY, and 30.11m kW of solar energy capacity in the same year, down 31.6%, mainly due to reduced state subsidies. For 2021, China’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) has set aside RMB5.95bn as renewable-powered electricity price subsidies, up 4.9% YoY, with a 56.8% YoY increase in solar project subsidies to RMB3.38bn, to further encourage solar investment.

Sources:

https://finance.sina.com.cn/esg/investment/2020-12-23/doc-iiznctke8074881.shtml

http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2020-12/21/content_5571916.htm

https://www.jiemian.com/article/5396423.html

https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/how-china-can-achieve-carbon-neutrality-by-2060

https://wind.in-en.com/html/wind-2391229.shtml

https://www.energytrend.cn/news/20200302-82720.html

https://www.sohu.com/a/433796406_488177