As growth of renewable energies in China continues to gain momentum, the National Energy Administration has said the country will further accelerate the construction of solar and wind power generation facilities in the Gobi Desert and other arid regions to push the growth.
Despite rapid expansion, limited consumption capacity and the lack of a power transmission grid in some regions the country’s are some of the challenges the large-scale development of renewable energy still faces in China, the administration said during a national renewable energy development and construction situation analysis meeting held this month, adding that it is is necessary that the government create a good environment for the development of the industry as the country is now in the new phase of rapid renewable energy development.
A record 125 million kilowatts was reached last year with the government’s newly installed combined wind and solar power capacity, thereby taking total installed capacity to over 1.2 billion kW witj wind accounting for 37.63 million kW and solar 87.41 million kW.
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According to the NEA, newly installed capacity of renewable energy, including solar and wind, reached 152 million kW last year, or 76.2 percent of the country’s total newly added installed energy capacity and the administration has vowed to further step up monitoring work to expand its wind and solar power capacity and further facilitate the country’s low-carbon energy transition and ensure domestic energy security.
An analyst said while renewable energy has been gaining momentum and ensuring domestic energy security in recent years, sources such as solar and wind have not yet fully taken off as a replacement for fossil fuels due to infrastructure and logistical challenges, among others especially as tasks like building new power transmission lines to connect remote renewable energy sources with population centers, and building energy storage facilities, take time. That in itself is a challenge, said Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University.
However, China has been advancing construction of power grid and energy storage facilities in recent years, while the cost of renewable energies has also been declining thanks to technological advances and according to the NEA, renewable energy accounted for 47.3 percent of the country’s total power generation capacity by the end of 2022, up 2.5 percentage points compared with a year prior.
Several landmark energy projects were completed last year, including the world’s largest clean energy corridor, and the most efficient compressed air energy storage station, said the NEA.
Story was adapted from Asia News Network.
