Renewable energy puts country on track to meet carbon goals
Supported by robust supply chains and policy measures, China has performed well in developing renewable energy in recent years.
Total installed capacity of renewable energy generation in China rose to 1.1 billion kilowatts over the past 10 years. The combined installed capacity of wind and solar power has reached 670 million kWs, almost 90 times the level in 2012, the National Energy Administration said.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China’s renewable energy generation capacity is expected to account for more than 50% of the total, and the generation capacity for wind and solar power will be doubled, the administration said.
Wei Hanyang, a power market analyst at the research company BloombergNEF, said part of the reason for this rapid development is China’s advantages in boosting clean power installation due to massive demand from the domestic market. Stateowned grid operators have tried to ensure renewables are consumed, rather than wasted.
“Renewable energy has become the principal source of the country’s newly installed generation capacity in recent years, especially solar and wind power,” Wei said.
The country’s renewable energy sector will grow steadily, and there will be more solar power installations nationwide, he said.
China’s rapid development of renewable energy has also attracted multinationals.
Shell, SABIC and Honeywell have announced plans in recent years to invest in the country’s renewable energy sector because of its rapid growth and huge potential. Global energy and chemical companies are drawing up local plans that cover a broad range of subsectors such as petrochemicals, hydrogen, vehicle charging stations and carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS.
Shell, which is based in London, has steadily invested in China’s renewable energy market in recent years. Part of the company’s blueprint is to expand its hydrogen presence in the country by building a network of hydrogen refueling stations in Shanghai — Shell’s first hydrogen refueling network in Asia — in collaboration with the Stateowned Shenergy Group Co.
The joint venture said it plans to build six to 10 hydrogen refueling stations in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region in the next five years, rising to 30 stations by 2030.
Shell also expressed optimism about the prospects for CCUS in China, saying it is essential to help the country achieve a carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
Jason Wong, executive chairman of Shell Companies in China, said the country’s significant geological potential for storing carbon — it has an estimated 2,400 gigatons of storage capacity, second only to that of the United States — means there is plenty of potential to tap.
The U.S. energy company ExxonMobil has said it will work with China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Shell to develop a carbon capture and storage, or CCS, center in Huizhou, Guangdong province.
The facility, China’s first large-scale offshore CCS hub capable of capturing up to 11 million short tons of carbon dioxide annually, will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and meet the decarbonization needs of companies in the area.
Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute, said foreign investment in China’s energy sector is expected to rise as the country continues to step up its green energy transition, with the aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2060.
The country’s rapid development of renewable energy has also boosted global employment.
According to the recently published Renewable Energy and Jobs Annual Review 2022 from the International Renewable Energy Agency, employment worldwide in the sector reached 12.7 million jobs last year, with China accounting for nearly half the total.
Nearly two-thirds of these jobs are in Asia, with China accounting for 42% of the global figure, followed by the European Union and Brazil with 10% each, and the U.S. and India with 7% each.
Last year 5.4 million people were employed in the renewable energy sector in China, compared with 4.7 million in 2020.
China accounted for 48% of the 1.4 million jobs in the global onshore and offshore wind market last year, even though the 47 gigawatts added to the sector was considerably less than the previous year. The country was also the largest contributor to hydropower jobs, accounting for 37% of such employment globally.
Liu Dechun, director of the Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection at the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic regulator, said China can reach peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 as planned because it has made considerable progress in its green and low-carbon energy transformation over the past 10 years.
China’s clean energy consumption accounted for 25.5% of total energy use last year, 11 percentage points more than in 2012. Its share of coal consumption stood at 56% last year, 12.5 percentage points less than in 2012, the department said.