China's renewable energy especially wind power and solar PV power is expected to go through a key period for transformation and upgrades in 2016-2020, which means capacity expansion, quality and efficiency would be all of major importance during the period. It is more urgent to tackle utilization problems and improve energy efficiency for more healthy development of wind power and solar PV industry during 2016-2020, according to industry analysts.
China sees fast development of wind power and solar PV in 2011-15
China's wind power and solar PV industry have gone through fast development during the 2011-2015 period.
Statistics showed that the country's accumulative on-grid wind power capacity reached 101.07 GW by end of this March, nine months ahead of previous schedule of achieving 100 GW by the end of 2015 set in the 2011-2015 development plan.
Meanwhile, statistics released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed that China's solar PV installed capacity reached 35.78GW by the end of this June, exceeding the target set for 2011-2015 period six months ahead. The country's on-gird wind power capacity is likely to reach 120 GW by the end of 2015, said Zhu Ming, deputy director of the National Energy Administration (NEA)'s new and renewable energy department earlier this month.
Such speedy development made the targets of 200GW and 100GW set for the wind power and solar PV capacity by year of 2020 in the country's plan for combating climate change in 2014-2020 relatively conservative and it is widely anticipated that such development targets would be raised for future development.
China's PV power capacity will hit 150 GW by 2020, said Dong Xiufen, director of the new energy office with the NEA earlier at an industry conference, noting that the country will continue expanding PV power generation in the next five years.
For the upcoming 2016-2020 period, the country's wind power industry is expected to expand by no less than annual incremental capacity in 2011-2015, said Li Peng, an official with the NEA, which is taken by observers that the country is likely to raise wind power capacity target to 250-280 GW by 2020.
Utilization to be of more importance
Along with the fast development of renewable energy, experts point out that power utilization and efficiency should be attached more attention to during the 2016-2020 period.
It is noted that utilization problem has been hindering renewable energy development in recent years that wind power waste ratio had reached as high as 17 percent in 2012. The ratio dropped in following years but rose back to 15.2 percent in the first half this year.
In the meantime, solar power waste amounted to 1.8 billion kwh in the first six months this year, accounting for nearly 10 percent of total solar PV power generated electricity during the period. The ratio, in particular, stood at 28 percent and 19 percent, respectively during the period for Gansu and Xinjiang.
On the other side, the country's social electricity use is predicted of slowing growth during 2016-2020 with annual growth rate estimated to be at approximately 4 percent. It would be a waste of investment if installed capacity keeps expanding but electricity generation doesn't rise, Li Peng said.
In fact, renewable energy utilization is one of the key tasks under the undergoing power reform. Optimization of subsidies, intensifying competition, lowering cost, integration of the industry as well as energy transformation could be ways for tackling renewable energy utilization bottlenecks, according to industry insiders.
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