An employee walks near fields of heliostat mirrors at the site of Dunhuang Shouhang 100MW Tower Solar Thermal Power Generation Project, in Gansu province. - Reuters
BEIJING: China broke its own record in installing renewable power in 2024, as the world’s top polluter continues to push its energy transition while the US shifts away from fighting climate change.
The world’s second-largest economy added roughly 277 gigawatts of solar last year, surpassing the previous year’s record of 217 gigawatts, the National Energy Administration said in a statement on Tuesday. It also added nearly 80 gigawatts of wind, according to the statement.
The record installation means China has hit its 2030 renewables target six years early. This stands in contrast to the US, the world’s second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, where new President Donald Trump has started implementing a hard pivot back to fossil fuels and withdrawn from the Paris climate pact.
The US move was widely expected and many are looking to other countries, especially China, to lead the fight against global warming.
The rapid addition of solar capacity, which surpasses the China Photovoltaic Industry Association’s December estimate, also comes after a tough year for the country’s solar industry, where a supply glut caused huge losses for leading manufacturers.
The pace of renewable power installation in China will likely slow in the next few years as delays to grid infrastructure upgrades and limited land availability pose challenges to project development, according to BloombergNEF, a research organisation that helps energy professionals generate opportunities.
Still, the country is expected to add 273 gigawatts of solar and 94 gigawatts of wind in 2025, driven by needs of state-owned developers and provincial governments to meet their renewable capacity goals in the final year of the country’s 14th five-year plan, BNEF said.
China also added 54 gigawatts of thermal power capacity last year, after the country accelerated coal power plant approvals in 2022 and 2023 amid a power crunch, the NEA said. - Bloomberg
