CHINA’S GREEN TRANSITION
China is currently the world’s largest producer of solar energy and dominates every step of the supply chain, from panel manufacturing to exporting panels worldwide. At this rate, solar power could come to account for 43.2% of China’s energy mix. Today, together with wind, it contributes 11% of the global total.
2022 reports confirm China’s lead in solar energy production: of the ten largest solar panel manufacturers, seven were Chinese. The world’s largest solar park is in Golmud, Qinghai, the third-largest city on the Tibetan plateau. Work began in 2009, and today its seven million panels produce around 2.8 gigawatts of electricity. The latest data show that China is further strengthening its position as world leader in renewable energy. It is even exceeding the energy targets set by Xi Jinping in 2020 to reduce CO2 emissions.
By the first half of 2023, China’s utility-scale solar capacity had reached 228 GW, more than the rest of the world combined. These results come from installations concentrated in the country’s northern and north-western provinces. Among the installations contributing most to this energy transition is the world’s largest hybrid solar-hydroelectric plant, located on the Tibetan plateau. Called Kela, it can produce up to 2 billion kWh of electricity a year, equal to the energy consumption of more than 700,000 households.
Despite China’s efforts and investments in renewables, there are always new challenges to face. In recent years, record heatwaves and drought have caused considerable damage that has slowed the transition. Even so, the sector has not gone into crisis: global solar panel export figures keep the spotlight on China. In 2021 alone, exports of made in China solar panels and related products grew 60% on the previous year, reaching 28.4 billion dollars, as reported by the South China Morning Post citing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. And after the European Commission presented the “REPowerEU Plan”, which aimed to cut CO2 by 55% by 2030, exports from China increased even further.
The road to a fully green conversion is still long, but China currently produces 30% of the world’s total installed renewable electricity, and last year it generated 29.5% of the country’s total electricity consumption from renewable sources: its climb towards a green transition is not starting from zero.
