China to meet 2030 renewable energy target by end of year: state researcher

The country aims to increase its installed wind power capacity by 70 gigawatts (GW) and solar power capacity by 190 GW by the end of 2024, according to a new report by the China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute (CREEI), a research institute under the National Energy Administration (NEA).

According to statistics released by NEA for 2023, China added 217 GW of solar power and 76 GW of wind capacity, bringing its total capacity to 1,050 GW by the end of last year.

“Improving energy self-sufficiency requires further development and use of renewable energy,” we read in the CREEI report.

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China, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and producer of renewable energy sources in the world, was responsible for almost 60 percent last year. total increase in renewable energy capacity in the world, increasing solar, wind and hydropower generation capacity by a record 301 GW.

However, the meteoric rise of the country’s multi-billion-dollar renewable energy sector – particularly the solar cell industry – has raised concerns about excess capacity due to a mismatch between rapidly growing supply and much slower demand, and a top industry executive urged Beijing to intervene last month .

According to CREEI, China’s wind energy sector will continue to grow “relatively rapidly”, while solar energy production capacity will expand “at top speed”.

According to data published by NEA, at the end of May, China already had about 690 GW of installed solar power capacity and 460 GW of wind power capacity, accounting for about 38 percent of the country’s installed power generation capacity.

To achieve its goal of 80% of its energy mix coming from non-fossil fuels by 2060 – the same year it aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions – China needs to improve the stability and reliability of its renewable energy sources and modernize its power grids to increase renewable energy consumption, CREEI said.

Analysts say this would mean huge opportunities for the energy storage and grid equipment sectors.

China’s energy storage capacity, based on new technologies such as lithium-ion batteries, tripled year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, with tech giants such as Tesla and Contemporary Amperex Technology seeing growth opportunities in the sector.

The power grid equipment sector is also set to boom, as state utilities increase their spending to meet the country’s growing electricity demand and Beijing calls for better integration of renewable energy generation capacity into the power system, according to reports from Citi and Daiwa Capital last year. month.