China powers up renewable energy but some wind farms still struggle to plug into grid
- Renewables account for more than 38 per cent of overall capacity as country tries to wean itself off coal
China’s renewable power capacity rose 12 per cent in 2018 compared to a year earlier, official data showed on Monday, with the country still rolling out new projects despite transmission capacity concerns and a growing subsidy payment backlog.
China has been aggressively promoting renewable power as part of an “energy revolution” aimed at easing its dependence on coal, a major source of pollution and climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Total capacity – including hydro and biomass as well as solar and wind – rose to 728 gigawatts (GW) by the end of last year, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said.
That amounted to 38.3 per cent of China’s total installed power capacity, up 1.7 percentage points on the year and around 7 percentage points higher than at the end of 2015.
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China hooked up another 20.59GW of new wind power capacity to its grid in 2018, the NEA said. New solar capacity reached 44.3GW, slightly higher than a figure given by an industry association earlier this month, but still down compared to 2017 following a decision to slash subsidies.
China also completed another 8.54GW of hydropower capacity, mostly in the nation’s southwest, bringing total hydropower to 352GW by the year’s end.
China has tried to change the “rhythm” of renewable power construction to give grid operators time to raise transmission capacity and ensure clean electricity generation is not wasted.
Li Chuangjun, deputy head of the NEA’s new energy section, said overall rates of waste in the wind power sector had fallen to 7 per cent last year, down 5 percentage points on the year.
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China’s “energy revolution” has also involved the installation of new emissions control technology at its coal-fired power plants, still the dominant form of energy in China.
Around 810GW, or 80 per cent, of China’s coal-fired capacity was employing “ultra-low emission” technology by the end of 2018, according to the transcript of a speech by Environment Minister Li Ganjie published on Monday.
But despite China’s efforts to cut coal consumption and promote renewable power domestically, it has been criticised for backing new coal-fired projects overseas that use obsolete equipment no longer permitted at home.
