China's renewable energy continues to be a global leader

The reporter learned from the regular press conference held by the National Energy Administration on the 13th that in 2022, China's major renewable energy projects have made significant progress, the competitiveness of renewable energy continues to increase, the new installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation in the country exceeded 120 million kilowatts, exceeded 100 million kilowatts for three consecutive years, and hit a new record high, driving the installed capacity of renewable energy exceeded 1.2 billion kilowatts. China's renewable energy continues to be a global leader.

According to Wang Dapeng, deputy director of the New Energy and renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration, the National Energy Administration anchors the goal of reaching the peak of carbon neutrality, strengthens the top-level design, does a good job in policy supply, and coordinates the safe supply of energy and green and low-carbon development. In 2022, China's renewable energy has shown a good trend of fast development, good operation quality, high utilization level and strong industrial competitiveness, and has achieved many milestone new achievements.

In 2022, the new installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation in the country reached 125 million kilowatts, and the new installed capacity of renewable energy in the year was 152 million kilowatts, accounting for 76.2% of the new installed capacity of power generation in the country, which has become the main body of new installed capacity of electricity in China. By the end of 2022, the installed capacity of renewable energy reached 1.213 billion kilowatts, accounting for 47.3% of the country's total installed power generation capacity, an increase of 2.5 percentage points over 2021. In 2022, renewable energy generation will reach 2.7 trillion KWH, accounting for 31.6% of the whole society's electricity consumption, an increase of 1.7 percentage points over 2021, and renewable energy is playing an increasingly obvious role in ensuring energy supply.

Major progress was made in major projects for renewable energy. First, the construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases focusing on desert, Gobi and desert areas is progressing smoothly. Second, hydropower construction was actively promoted. All 16 units of Baihetan Hydropower Station have been completed and put into operation, and the six giant cascade hydropower stations on the main stream of the Yangtze River, including Wudongde, Baihetan, Xiluodu, Xiangjiaba, Three Gorges and Gezhouba, have formed the world's largest "clean energy corridor". Third, the construction of pumped storage capacity has been significantly accelerated. In 2022, 48 new pumped storage projects were approved nationwide, with an installed capacity of 68.9 million kilowatts, exceeding the approved scale of the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, and 8.8 million kilowatts of new production was put into operation throughout the year, a record high.

The development of renewable energy has a high degree of marketization, a large number of various market entities, full competition, and strong innovation vitality. Technological advances have driven costs down significantly, onshore 6 MW and offshore 10 MW fans have become the mainstream, and the average conversion efficiency of mass-produced monocrystalline silicon cells has reached 23.1%. Photovoltaic sand control, "agriculture + photovoltaic", renewable energy hydrogen production and other new models and new formats continue to emerge, distributed development has become the main way of wind power photovoltaic development, in 2022, distributed photovoltaic installed capacity of 51.11 million kilowatts, accounting for more than 58% of the year's new photovoltaic installed capacity.

China's renewable energy continues to be a global leader. The focus of the global new energy industry has further shifted to China, and key components such as photovoltaic modules, wind turbines and gearboxes produced in China account for 70% of the global market share. At the same time, the development of renewable energy in China has made a positive contribution to global emission reduction. In 2022, China's renewable energy generation is equivalent to reducing domestic carbon dioxide emissions by about 2.26 billion tons, and exported wind power photovoltaic products reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 573 million tons for other countries, with a total emission reduction of 2.83 billion tons. It accounted for about 41% of the global renewable energy converted carbon reduction during the same period. China has become an active participant and important contributor to the global response to climate change.