China has become the undisputed global leader in wind and solar deployments thanks in part to state incentive programmes and an ambitious grid expansion strategy, energy research group Ember says in a new report.
In 2023, the world’s second-largest economy accounted for more than half of global wind and solar additions.
The country’s wind and solar facilities now generate 1,470 terawatt-hours of electricity a year. That’s 37% of the total global output from these technologies, and more than the entire electricity demand of Japan, or 75% of India’s annual electricity consumption.
The speed of the transition has accelerated, with wind and solar generation doubling in just three years.
All renewables, including hydro, comprised 30.7% of China’s electricity mix in 2023, up from 20.1% a decade before.
Behind the shift: Clean energy has become a priority focus area for the government for three main reasons: Climate and pollution concerns; a desire to reduce the country’s dependence on fuel imports; and an ambition to build future export markets. Ember notes that in 2023, clean energy was already the top driver of China’s economic growth.
To get to this point, the national government introduced policies to incentivise wind and solar installations, including feed-in tariffs and subsidies in the form of tax incentives.
It also focused on building out its grid infrastructure, such as long distance transmission lines, to reduce curtailment (wasted electricity) and make use of the abundant wind and solar resources in the country’s interior. Over the past decade, China was responsible for more than one-third of the global expansion of transmission grids, Ember says.
Meanwhile, reforms aimed at prioritising off-take from wind and solar farms over other technologies have further helped to reduce curtailment rates.
Targets for renewable deployments have also been instrumental, Ember notes, particularly at the local government level.
The “whole county PV” programme, for example, requires solar panels to be installed on a certain percentage of rooftops. In 2022 alone, it yielded 55GW of rooftop solar installations.
Under this scheme, large developers – often state-owned entities – are tasked with managing the programme in their particular city or region, working with networks of smaller local players whose job is to identify suitable rooftops and secure project development rights.
A turning point: China’s carbon dioxide emissions will likely start to fall from 2024, according to a recent analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
That’s partly thanks to a recovery in hydro output following a historic drought, and also due to the ongoing boom in wind and solar installations.
BloombergNEF agrees. “China’s path follows the developed economy camp, with emissions falling immediately from 2024,” the research group says in a new outlook report.
