2023 in review: Major progress achieved in China's renewable energy industry

China has witnessed significant achievements in the renewable energy industry in the past year, thanks to its unremitting efforts towards the "dual-carbon" goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.

The country's installed power generation capacity of renewable energy, including wind power, solar power, hydropower and biomass energy, had surpassed thermal power for the first time, constituting more than half of the country's installed power generation capacity, said the National Energy Administration (NEA) on December 21.

The installed renewable energy capacity had totaled 1.45 billion kilowatts by then, while the country's total installed power generation capacity had reached about 2.9 billion kilowatts, said the NEA.

Renewable energy has supported about one-third of China's total power consumption, with electricity generated by wind and solar power accounting for more than 15 percent of the total power consumption.

A slew of projects in the field were constructed and completed in the past year, yielding positive outcomes in facilitating clean and low-carbon energy transformation and building a new energy system.

Here are some of the examples demonstrating the country's efforts to accelerate the development of renewable resources.

Wind power: Offshore wind turbines, research base

Located off the coast of east China's Fujian Province, China's self-developed 16-megawatt offshore wind turbine went into operation and connected to the national grid in July.

The offshore wind turbine, which has the world's largest impeller diameter and a large single-unit capacity of 16 megawatts (MW), can be widely used in sea areas where wind speeds are medium or high.

Its annual power output, which is estimated to average over 66 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), can meet the annual demand of 36,000 families of three, save 22,000 tonnes of standard coal, and reduce 54,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The offshore wind turbine set a new world record for single-day electricity generation per unit in September, producing 384,100 kWh in 24 hours.

In November, the world's most powerful offshore wind turbine with an 18-megawatt capacity rolled off the assembly line in Fuqing, Fujian Province.

A single turbine unit can reach 18 megawatts in an environment where the annual average wind speed is 10 meters per second. It generates 38 kWh of electricity from just one rotation and produces 72 million kWh of clean electricity annually, meeting the annual demand of 40,000 households.

The clean energy it generates annually can save over 20,000 tonnes of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 55,000 tonnes.

The 18-megawatt wind turbine is expected to be installed in coastal areas in China's southeastern coastal areas.

The country has also started to construct its first national offshore wind power research and test base in Fuqing City, which will consist of a land test center and a test wind farm.

The base is slated to be put into operation in 2024. By then, it will integrate functions of simulation analysis, operation testing, characteristic evaluation, and technology research and development, which will play a fundamental role in and have a demonstration effect for breaking through core technologies of offshore wind power, according to the State Grid Fujian Electric Power Co., Ltd.

It will also be capable of supporting the world's cutting-edge research such as empirical studies on large-capacity offshore wind turbines.

Solar power: PV power stations

Kela photovoltaic (PV) power station, the world's largest and highest-altitude hydro-photovoltaic complementary power station constructed by China, entered full operation in June.

Situated in the Yalong River Basin in southwest China's Sichuan Province's Yajiang County, the station boasts an installed capacity of 1 million kilowatts, and can cover the needs of 700,000 households for a whole year with its annual generating capacity of 2 billion kWh, saving 600,000 tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1.6 million tonnes.

A total of 527,000 photovoltaic foundation piles were installed in the power station, which has the same weight as 222 C919 aircraft, and more than 2 million photovoltaic modules were assembled, and the components can cover the area of three Beijing Daxing International Airports.

In July, Huadian Tianjin Haijing PV power station, a "salt-light complementary" project featuring the world's largest single capacity, was connected to the power grid in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

The operation of the power station with a capacity of 1,000 MW boasts a composite industrial model of photovoltaic power generation, water-surface halogen production and underwater aquaculture, while improving the power supply capacity in northern China.

It can provide 1.5 billion kWh of clean electricity every year, which is able to meet the electricity consumption demands of 1.5 million households and reduce about 1.25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the thermal power required to generate the same amount of electricity.

Lately, a pv project with a power generation capacity of 900 MW went into operation on Sunday in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

Located in Gonghe County, the project covers an area of about 1,540 hectares at an altitude of 3,000 meters in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.

It will generate about 2.1 billion kWh of electricity on average a year, equivalent to saving about 640,000 tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.74 million tonnes.

Hydropower: Lijiaxia station, 1,800 km clean energy corridor

In October, the world's largest double-row turbine arrangement, the Lijiaxia Hydropower Station, went into operation in northwest China's Qinghai Province, with a full capacity of two million kilowatts.

The hydropower station, with an average annual electricity generation of 5.9 billion KWH, marks the first time that China has adopted a double-row turbine arrangement.

As an important supporting part of China's ultra-high voltage transmission channel, the hydropower station stabilizes the operation of wind and photovoltaic power generation, and converts new energy power generation into safe, stable and high-quality power.

By the end of September, the Lijiaxia Hydropower Station had generated a cumulative power generation of 142.482 billion kWh, equivalent to saving about 42.7446 million tonnes of standard coal and reducing 113,9856 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, which makes positive contributions to promoting the economic development and ecological protection in the Yellow River Basin.

China is also home to the world's largest clean energy corridor, which just had the first anniversary of its completion on December 20.

The clean energy corridor, spanning 1,800 kilometers, consists of six mage hydropower stations on China's Yangtze River, namely Wudongde, Baihetan, Xiluodu, Xiangjiaba, Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba.

It harbors 110 hydropower units, contributing to a total installed capacity of 71.695 million kilowatts and an average annual electricity production of about 300 billion kWh.

In the past year, the corridor generated more than 270 billion kWh of electricity, saving more than 81 million tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by over 220 million tonnes, said the NEA.

The electricity it produced in the past year met the electricity consumption demand of 280 million people.

Besides supplying clean energy, the corridor has also formed a 768-kilometer deep waterway, a cascade reservoir group with a total storage capacity of 91.9 billion cubic meters, and strategic freshwater resources, achieving comprehensive benefits in shipping, drought resistance and water supply, and ecological regulation, said the NEA.

(All photos by China Media Group unless otherwise stated)