The National Energy Administration held a regular press conference in Beijing to release the development of renewable energy in 2022, introduce the progress of the work related to the improvement of the renewable energy green power certificate system, the scale of the national new energy storage capacity and the scale of the national electricity market transactions, and answer questions from reporters.

1、 The new installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation across the country exceeded 120 million kilowatts, a record high, driving the installed capacity of renewable energy to exceed 1.2 billion kilowatts.

In 2022, the new installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation across the country will exceed 120 million kilowatts, reaching 125 million kilowatts, breaking 100 million kilowatts for three consecutive years, hitting a new record high. In the whole year, the new installed capacity of renewable energy was 152 million kilowatts, accounting for 76.2% of the new installed capacity of power generation in China, and has become the main body of the new installed capacity of electricity in China. Among them, 37.63 million kilowatts of wind power, 87.41 million kilowatts of solar power, 3.34 million kilowatts of biomass power, 15.07 million kilowatts of conventional hydropower and 8.8 million kilowatts of pumped storage energy were added. By the end of 2022, the installed capacity of renewable energy exceeded 1.2 billion kilowatts, reaching 1.213 billion kilowatts, accounting for 47.3% of the total installed capacity of power generation in the country, 2.5 percentage points higher than that in 2021. Among them, wind power is 365 million kilowatts, solar power is 393 million kilowatts, biomass power is 41 million kilowatts, conventional hydropower is 368 million kilowatts, and pumped storage is 45 million kilowatts.

2、 For the first time, the annual output of wind power photovoltaic exceeded 1 trillion kWh. In 2022, China’s wind power and photovoltaic power generation will exceed 1 trillion kilowatt-hours, reaching 1.19 trillion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 207.3 billion kilowatt-hours compared with 2021, a year-on-year increase of 21%, accounting for 13.8% of the total social electricity consumption, a year-on-year increase of 2 percentage points, close to the domestic electricity consumption of urban and rural residents nationwide. In 2022, the power generation capacity of renewable energy will reach 2.7 trillion kWh, accounting for 31.6% of the total social electricity consumption, 1.7 percentage points higher than that in 2021. The role of renewable energy in ensuring energy supply is increasingly obvious.

3、 Significant progress was made in major renewable energy projects. First, the construction of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic bases focusing on desert, Gobi and desert areas is progressing smoothly.

The first batch of 97.05 million kilowatt base projects have been fully started, and some have been completed and put into operation. The second batch of base projects have been started in succession, and the third batch of bases have formed a project list. Second, hydropower construction was actively promoted. All 16 units of Baihetan Hydropower Station have been completed and put into operation. Six giant cascade hydropower stations on the main stream of the Yangtze River, including Wudongde, Baihetan, Xiluodu, Xiangjiaba, Three Gorges and Gezhouba, form the world’s largest “clean energy corridor”. Third, the construction of pumped storage was significantly accelerated. In 2022, 48 pumped storage projects were newly approved nationwide, with an installed capacity of 68.9 million kilowatts, which has exceeded the total approved scale during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period. The new production capacity of 8.8 million kilowatts throughout the year reached a record high.

4、 The competitiveness of renewable energy continues to increase.

First, the development of renewable energy has a high degree of marketization, a large number of market players, full competition and strong innovation vitality. Second, technological progress has driven the cost down significantly. The onshore 6MW and offshore 10MW wind turbines have become the mainstream. The average conversion efficiency of mass-produced monocrystalline silicon batteries has reached 23.1%. Third, new models and new forms of business such as photovoltaic desertification control, “agriculture+photovoltaic”, and renewable energy hydrogen production are emerging, and distributed development has become the main way of wind power and photovoltaic development. In 2022, the new installed capacity of distributed photovoltaic will be 51.11 million kilowatts, accounting for more than 58% of the new installed capacity of photovoltaic in that year.

5、 China’s renewable energy continues to maintain the leading position in the world. The focus of the global new energy industry has further shifted to China, and China’s key components such as photovoltaic modules, wind turbines, gear boxes, etc. account for 70% of the global market share. At the same time, China’s renewable energy development has made a positive contribution to global emission reduction. In 2022, China’s renewable energy power generation will be equivalent to reducing domestic carbon dioxide emissions by about 2.26 billion tons, and the export of wind power photovoltaic products will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 573 million tons for other countries, with a total emission reduction of 2.83 billion tons, accounting for about 41% of the global renewable energy converted carbon emissions in the same period. China has become an active participant and important contributor in the global response to climate change. Next, I would like to introduce the work progress of improving the renewable energy green power certificate system.

To implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the National Energy Administration actively promoted the trading of green power certificates and guided green power consumption. In 2022, 20.6 million green certificates were issued throughout the year, corresponding to 20.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, an increase of 135% over 2021; The number of transactions reached 9.69 million, corresponding to 9.69 billion kWh, an increase of 15.8 times over 2021. By the end of 2022, about 59.54 million green certificates had been issued nationwide, and the total number of transactions was 10.31 million, effectively promoting the green and low-carbon transformation and high-quality development of the economy and society.

Source: NEA