China Releases Five-Year Plan For Renewables

• Under its 14^th FYP, China has set itself a target to achieve 3,300 TWh of annual renewable energy generation by 2025, up from 2.21 TWh in 2020
• By the target year, it aims for renewables to account for 33% of its energy consumption, growing from 28.8% in 2020
• Specific capacity for wind and solar energy is not mentioned, but the overarching target remains to achieve more than 1.2 TW by 2030 as announced earlier
• For solar PV, the focus will be on large scale plants in the desert regions, distributed generation and technological advancements

China has released its much-awaited trajectory for renewable energy under its ongoing 14^th Five-Year Plan (FYP) aiming for 3,300 TWh of annual renewable energy generation by 2025 and for renewables to provide over 50% additional electricity consumption between 2021 and 2025.

The 3,300 TWh goal will be up from 2.21 TWh achieved in 2020. By 2025, China aims to have 33% of its energy consumption coming from renewables (up from 28.8% in 2020) and 18% from non-hydropower.

The 2030 goal for wind and solar energy to represent more than 1.2 TW remains, however the government has not specified individual targets for these 2 technologies under the 14^th FYP though it did mention that power generation from these 2 technologies should double during this period (see China NDC For 1.2 TW Wind & Solar By 2030).

The National Energy Administration (NEA) counts the 13^th FYP, when the focus was on poverty alleviation through PV technology, as having helped build 26.36 GW of such projects benefiting 4.15 million poor households. "During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the 'Plan' anchors the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, focusing on five aspects to vigorously promote the development of rural renewable energy, accelerate the construction of a renewable energy-based rural clean energy utilization system, consolidate and expand the achievements in poverty alleviation have helped rural revitalization,"stated the NEA.

Under the 14^th FYP, China will encourage and actively promote the construction of its triple digit GW scale of wind and solar power plants in the desert regions as Gobi desert. In Gobi desert, work for almost 90% of the 1^st batch of large scale projects of about 100 GW has been started. This, the government, sees as significant to support its goal to achieve carbon neutrality.

For distributed power generation, the plan includes action plans to promote the development of rooftop solar for government buildings, transportation hubs, schools, hospitals, industrial parks and other buildings with sufficient roof areas, good grid access and consumption conditions, while also improving the coverage of this segment.

Government will also encourage integrated photovoltaics as agrivoltaics, with 5G base stations and data centers, among others. Old wind and solar power plants will be decommissioned or upgraded.

Technological innovation will also be one of the focus areas, including for new high efficiency solar cells, new energy microgrids and clean energy demonstration projects also form part of the package.

The 14^th FYP of China is available on the NEA's website.

Recently, the NEA along with National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released an implementation plan to promote high quality development of renewable energy. It includes solar rooftop coverage for newly built public buildings to reach 50%.

They also emphasized on promoting breakthrough in key technologies as high efficiency solar cells and module recycling technology, among other focus areas.

In 2021, China brought online 54.88 GW of new solar PV capacity and in 2022 a Bloomberg report recently quoted state-owned CCTV of China to emphasize that the NEA expects 108 GW of new PV capacity to be grid connected as it has 121 GW solar projects under construction.

At the end of April 2022, China's total installed solar PV capacity had reached 322.57 GW, as per the NEA.