China rolled out a pilot scheme for green power trading on Tuesday, making strides towards the goals of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

Enterprises can trade power with qualified photovoltaic and wind power generation companies. The cost is slightly higher than traditional sources at this stage because the green power also takes into account the environmental cost.

"The high price reflects the rights and interests of renewable energy power generation enterprises, further speeding up the development of renewable energy," said Tang Honghai, an employee of Beijing Power Exchange Center.

China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) New Energy Holdings was one of the main green power producers in the Tuesday trading with more than 10 power plants in Jiangsu, Jilin and Anhui provinces participating.

"Over 1 billion kWh of our electricity was traded, generating over 35 million yuan in revenue for our new-energy producing companies," said Liu Jiapei, director of marketing center under the electricity marketing department of CGN New Energy Holdings.

Although the price is slightly higher for the electricity-consuming companies, it helps them accelerate green transformation and achieve low-carbon or even zero-emission development.

"The intention of green power trading reached nearly 20 billion kWh, which is about four times the trading scale of this time, indicating that the demand of our power users for green trading is very strong," said Tang.

Schneider Electric purchased over 17 million kWh of green power for its five factories in Shanghai, meeting 88 percent of their current round of demand, hoping to realize the relative "zero emission" in some factories in advance before 2022.

"We will do a lot of work, for example, the upgrading of green packaging, reducing carbon emission during transportation, photovoltaic power generation and wastewater reclamation. But these measures are not enough. To reach the goal of 100 percent relative zero emission, we must have green power," said Zhang Kaipeng, senior vice president of Schneider Electric.

The pilot scheme for green power trading uses blockchain technology. The whole trading process can be traced, tracked and certified, ensuring the traceability from production, trading and consumption, and improving the authority of green power consumption.

"We guide the consumption of green power in a market-oriented way, reflecting the environmental value of green electricity including wind power and photovoltaic power. The successful organization of the green power trading also marks a new step in the establishment of an electricity market system that adapts to the new power system," said Zhang Mianrong, chairman of the board of Guangzhou Power Exchange Center.

(Cover image is a screenshot)

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