40% of China's power to come from renewables by year-end
China is on track to have over 40% of its total installed power generation capacity, come from wind and solar energy by the end of this year, according to the China Electricity Council (CEC). This follows a milestone earlier in the year when renewable energy sources outpaced coal-fired capacity, for the first time. The country plans to add around 300GW of solar and wind power capacity this year, slightly more than last year's addition of 293GW.
Non-fossil fuel energy sources to increase by 2024-end
The surge in solar and wind power installations is expected to boost the overall installed capacity of non-fossil fuel energy sources, including nuclear and hydropower, to 1,900GW by the end of 2024. This would represent an increase from 53.9% in 2023 to 57.5% of China's total energy mix. As part of its carbon neutrality goal, China aims for non-fossil fuel sources to make up around 80% of its total energy mix by 2060.
Coal's share in energy mix expected to decline
Coal-fired capacity in China fell to 1,170GW or 38.1% of total power capacity, by the end of June. The CEC predicts that coal's share in China's energy mix will drop below 37% by year-end. Despite the increase in renewable energy capacity, the CEC warns that there will be places facing mounting pressure in absorbing renewable energy, and the utilization rate is expected to significantly drop.
Grid infrastructure requires further upgrades
The CEC report highlights that China's grid infrastructure still needs further upgrades, in order to improve its flexibility in transmission and storage to accommodate intermittent wind as well as solar power supplies. In the first half of 2024, utilization of solar and wind power capacity was less than half that of coal. This shows that the actual power generation volume of solar and wind was much lesser than coal, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of China's electricity supply in 2023.
