Renewable energy share in China’s electricity generation hits new record

China’s installed new energy generation capacity is growing rapidly, and the share of electricity generated has reached an all-time high.

From January to May, major domestic companies allocated more than 70 percent of their total energy investments to renewable energy generation.

In Guazhou County, northwest China’s Gansu Province, the world’s first major solar thermal storage “twin-tower solo generator” project recently entered the commissioning phase. The plant uses molten salt to store excess solar energy, providing stable and uninterrupted power around the clock.

Once operational by the end of the year, the station will complement adjacent photovoltaic and wind facilities. Together, they will create a 700,000-kilowatt multi-energy, complementary, clean energy facility that is expected to generate an annual electricity production of 1.8 billion kWh.

In addition, a wind farm developed by China Datang Corporation Ltd. is under construction in Basu County, in China’s southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region. Situated at an average altitude of 5,050 metres, once completed, the facility will be equipped with 20 wind turbines and is expected to generate an annual electricity output of 223 million kWh for the region.

“From January to May, the installed capacity of new energy accounted for 53.4 percent of China’s total installed generating capacity, up 4.7 percentage points compared with the same period last year. This indicates the continuous improvement of China’s energy supply structure,” said Yang Kun, executive vice president of the China Electricity Council.

As the use of renewable energy grows, innovative technologies and models continue to emerge that drive the development of modern electrical systems in the country.

The first large-scale wind and photovoltaic (PV) base project in the Yangtze River Delta region organically integrates PV, wind power and energy storage. The base can increase power generation during high demand and store additional energy when demand is low.

In addition, China Southern Power Grid, the country’s main grid operator, uses AI to forecast power demand from cities and provinces for the next 10 days. By analyzing data with more than 30 AI algorithms, this approach ensures precise power allocation.

Between January and May, 80 percent of China’s new generating capacity came from renewable sources. Furthermore, the share of energy generated from renewable sources rose from 32 percent at the end of 2023 to 34.2 percent now.

Renewable energy share in China’s electricity generation hits new record

A Microsoft system outage on Friday paralyzed flights, banks and train systems across Japan.

Reports indicate that a global IT outage prevented the West Japan Railway Company from displaying the locations of some trains, the ticketing system at Universal Studios Osaka was down, and budget airline Jetstar had to cancel about 20 flights.

Additionally, the Japan Airlines website and mobile apps were experiencing issues, including the unavailability of the booking and rebooking features for both domestic and international flights.

“Everything we do now depends on the system. We really don’t know what to do if something suddenly breaks. We can’t fix it ourselves, so there’s nothing we can do for now,” said a Tokyo resident.

McDonald’s Japan also reported that about 30 percent of its more than 2,900 stores in the country were unable to operate cash registers at the counter that same day. As a result, many of those stores experienced system failures and were forced to suspend operations.

In Japan, McDonald’s has been restored and some businesses have resumed operations.

McDonald’s in Japan said it is investigating the cause of a recent outage. It is unclear whether it is related to a Microsoft system issue.

Friday’s cybersecurity failure was a global incident that caused major disruptions across multiple sectors, including media and hospitals around the world.

This grounded flights in the United States, disrupted banking services in Australia and affected media and telecommunications operations in many countries.

The outage has been linked to problems with the CrowdStrike cybersecurity platform and a major outage at Microsoft’s cloud computing services.

The disruption continued for hours, even after Microsoft announced it was gradually resolving the issue affecting its apps and services.

The Microsoft system outage had a significant impact on U.S. stock futures, raising concerns across financial markets.

Microsoft (MSFT.O) shares fell 2.7% in premarket trading on the back of a cloud services slump that is already tough on Wall Street.

Investors are closely monitoring second-quarter earnings and seeing a shift away from large-cap technology stocks that have been key drivers of stock gains in 2024.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday as investors shuffled out of high-priced large-cap technology stocks while assessing the impact of a global technology outage that has hit companies across sectors.

Microsoft outage disrupts flights, banks, trains in Japan