New energy has stepped into a new stage of high-quality development

Green industries are growing rapidly

This year's government work report pointed out that over the past five years, China has strengthened ecological environmental protection and promoted green and low-carbon development.

At the level of steadily promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction, China has coordinated the safe and stable supply of energy and green and low-carbon development, and scientifically and orderly promoted carbon to peak carbon neutrality. We improved the energy mix, with ultra-low emissions of coal-fired power generating units exceeding 1.05 billion kilowatts, the installed capacity of renewable energy increased from 650 million kilowatts to over 1.2 billion kilowatts, and the share of clean energy consumption increased from 20.8% to over 25%.

Especially since the "double carbon" goal was proposed, China's new energy industries such as photovoltaic, wind power and supporting energy storage have shown a momentum of vigorous development.

Data from the National Energy Administration show that in 2022, the new installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation in the country exceeded 120 million kilowatts, reaching 125 million kilowatts, and exceeded 100 million kilowatts for three consecutive years, hitting a new record high. In 2022, the annual installed capacity of renewable energy was 152 million kilowatts, accounting for 76.2% of the country's new power generation capacity, which has become the main body of China's new power installed capacity.

Wang Dapeng, deputy director of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration, introduced at the regular press conference of the National Energy Administration held in February 2023, "China's renewable energy continues to maintain a leading position in the world, and the focus of the global new energy industry has further shifted to China. China's production of photovoltaic modules, wind turbines, gear boxes and other key components accounted for 70% of the global market share. At the same time, China's renewable energy development will make a positive contribution to global emission reduction."

The growth of installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation has also led to the acceleration of the installed capacity of supporting energy storage. By the end of 2022, the installed capacity of new energy storage projects in China had reached 8.7 million kilowatts, an increase of more than 110% over the end of 2021. In terms of the proportion of newly installed technologies in 2022, lithium-ion battery energy storage technology accounted for 94.2%, still in an absolute dominant position, and new compressed air energy storage and liquid flow battery energy storage technology accounted for 3.4% and 2.3% respectively.

It is worth mentioning that in the past year, under the impact of multiple unexpected factors at home and abroad such as the epidemic in China's economic development, the new energy industry has played an important role in stabilizing investment, stable growth, stable employment, and stable foreign trade.

According to data released by CINNO Research, in 2022, the investment amount of China's new energy projects reached 9.2 trillion yuan, and the new energy industry has become a key investment area of the emerging technology industry.

In 2022, the investment funds in China's new energy industry mainly flow to wind power photovoltaic, the amount of about 3.4 trillion yuan, accounting for about 36.9%; The total investment in energy storage is 2.7 trillion yuan, accounting for about 29.3%. The total investment amount of lithium battery energy storage is 2.2 trillion yuan, accounting for about 23.6%.

Moreover, the China Green Trade Development Report (2022) released by the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce shows that in 2021, China's green trade volume reached 1,161.09 billion US dollars, surpassing the European Union to become the world's largest green trade economy. It is understood that at present, photovoltaic, electric vehicles and lithium batteries have become the "new three" of China's foreign trade export growth point.

Among them, the output value of the photovoltaic manufacturing end (excluding inverters) exceeded 1.4 trillion yuan, an increase of more than 95%. The export of photovoltaic products exceeded 50 billion US dollars for the first time, an increase of more than 80%, becoming a highlight of China's foreign trade exports.

The rapid development of the new energy industry has brought golden development opportunities for related enterprises.

The reporter noted that in recent years, more than 100 new energy industries have lined up for ipos to land in the capital market and further expand their strength. At the same time, new energy enterprises represented by Longi Green Energy, Ningde Times and Tongwei Shares have doubled their profitability in the past five years.

Financial data show that from 2017 to 2021, the net profit attributable to listed company shareholders of Longji Green Energy, Tongwei Shares and Ningde Times increased from 3.565 billion yuan, 2.012 billion yuan and 3.972 billion yuan, respectively, to 9.086 billion yuan, 8.208 billion yuan and 15.931 billion yuan. They increased by 1.55 times, 3.08 times and 3.01 times respectively.

Liu Hanyuan, deputy to the National People's Congress, vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and chairman of the Board of Directors of Tongwei Group, said in an interview with reporters that in the next 30 years or so, the green transformation represented by automobile electrification, energy consumption electrification and electricity production cleaning will be shaped into a million billion yuan in China and a million billion dollars in the global industry scale.

"In this process of development, it will not increase the burden of the state, but also effectively stimulate investment, promote consumption, promote employment, promote the moderate and rapid development of China's economy, and completely solve the problem of smog and unsustainable resources and environment, and achieve a fundamental change in the development mode, so as to promote the realization of carbon neutrality in China and the world in advance." Liu Hanyuan said.

We will promote high-quality industrial development

In May 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the Implementation Plan on Promoting the High-quality Development of New Energy in the New Era, in which the construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases, the integrated development of new energy development and utilization and rural revitalization, the research of energy storage cost recovery mechanism, and the protection of industrial chain supply chain security and reasonable space demand for new energy development were mentioned.

Cao Renxian, a deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Sunshine Power, said that at present, the development of national scenic base projects has harsh requirements for the scale and volume of investment subjects, ignoring the technological innovation elements that promote the rapid development of the industry and the unique manufacturing attributes of new energy power generation. As the main force of innovation and development, private enterprises can hardly substantially participate in the development of large-scale scenic base projects. "It is suggested to fully respect the objective laws of industrial development, give play to the different advantages of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, and promote the high-quality development of the new energy industry."

Nan Cunhui, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and chairman of Chint Group, also agreed to encourage private enterprises to participate in the development of scenery base projects. He suggested: "Advocate advanced technology to occupy a certain proportion in the construction process of the scenery base project, retain 10% of the space as innovative technology competition configuration requirements, and guide the high-quality development of the photovoltaic industry by strengthening the application of advanced technology." It is suggested that the scenery base project should be mixed reform, optimize the business model, clarify the participation proportion of private enterprises through the 1+N model, attract more private enterprises to participate in the scenery base election, and activate the market vitality."

Accelerating the construction of rural clean energy utilization system is the inherent requirement of China's "14th Five-Year Plan" renewable energy development plan. Support the use of building construction photovoltaic, and actively promote the development of rural decentralized wind power, which is conducive to the development of rural revitalization strategy and the realization of the "dual carbon" goal.

Nan Cunhui proposed that household photovoltaic in some provinces by the transformer capacity limit, the whole county to promote policy implementation deviation, the filing of the grid connection process and other factors, to a large extent restricted the development of the photovoltaic industry. He suggested that social capital be encouraged to participate in accelerating the process of upgrading the rural power grid, and carry out transformer expansion, capacity increase and voltage enhancement in the pilot counties (cities and districts). At the same time, call not to carry out the whole county pilot on the grounds of suspension, suspension of household photovoltaic project filing, grid access and other work, and make it clear that all types of household photovoltaic business models are recorded in the name of natural persons and connected to the grid.

Zhong Baoshen, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Longi Green Energy, suggested the high-quality development of urban and rural green buildings: "Formulate the development plan and implementation plan for rural green buildings to help urban and rural coordinated development." In addition, it is recommended to fully consider the development potential of photovoltaic building integration, accelerate the deployment process, and make it provide more green primary energy for urban and rural buildings."

At the same time, during the national two sessions this year, the problem of limited space for photovoltaic development has also caused concern. The reporter noted that Liu Hanyuan and Cao Renxian have put forward relevant proposals to support the development of water surface photovoltaic.

In May 2022, the Ministry of Water Resources issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Control of shoreline Space in river and Lake Waters", which stipulates that "photovoltaic power plants, wind power generation and other projects shall not be built in rivers, lakes and reservoirs", which has a greater impact on the development of new energy. Cao Renxian suggested that the policy should not "one-size-fits-all" prohibit the construction of photovoltaic projects in river and lake waters, and classify them according to law and regulations.

In addition, energy storage, as an important support for the realization of high-quality development of new energy as China builds a new power system that ADAPTS to the gradual increase in the proportion of new energy, is also a key area of concern for representatives.

Song Hailiang, member of the CPPCC National Committee, Secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of China Energy Construction Group, said that at present, the new energy storage electricity price mechanism and profit model are not clear, and the income method is relatively single, which affects the enthusiasm of project investment.

Song Hailiang suggested that the establishment of a new energy storage capacity compensation mechanism and capacity market should be explored to reasonably reflect the installed economic benefits of energy storage facilities. Promote the spot market to gradually release the market price ceiling constraints, allow high-cost flexible resources such as energy storage to make profits through short-term high electricity prices, and clarify the market access of auxiliary services for electric energy storage. Encourage all localities to actively explore and innovate various new energy storage price mechanisms, try first when conditions are mature, and accelerate the formation of stable and reasonable income space for the energy storage industry.

Ensuring the supply of core raw materials for new energy is an important issue for the representatives. In the past two years, under the influence of supply and demand, the price of upstream raw materials lithium carbonate has grown rapidly, which has an important impact on the development of energy storage systems and new energy vehicles. Li Liangbin, a member of the National People's Congress and chairman of Ganfeng Lithium, suggested that the government support or share resources for companies to find high-quality mines around the world, and improve the efficiency of investment and construction of overseas projects. At the same time, under the premise of ensuring sustainable development, we will accelerate the exploration and development of domestic resource projects.