Source: AFP
Hundreds of rows of glittering panels cover surfaces of pure sand at sunset in a remote northern desert in China — once the world’s largest solar farm.
On the edge of the forbidding Tengger Desert, the solar farm generates 1.5 gigawatts of power — but it has since been eclipsed, and the largest is now located further west with more than double the capacity.
China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, is building nearly twice as much wind and solar capacity as all other countries combined.
Last week, its wind and solar capacity exceeded a target set by President Xi Jinping nearly six years ahead of schedule.
The massive solar arrays in the Ningxia region are evidence of a state-led industrial policy that has driven this breakneck growth.
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South of the regional capital Yinchuan, huge trucks roar down a highway lined with solar panels and wind turbines that stretch to the horizon.
Ningxia, like much of northwest China, is sparsely populated and sunny, full of small farms, vineyards and large power plants.
This geography makes it a prime location for solar power generation, which is then sent to China’s eastern and southern provinces where demand for electricity is highest.
“China’s solar power is developing at an unprecedented pace and scale,” said analyst Wu Di of Peking University’s Institute of Energy.
The country increased its installed solar capacity by more than 55 percent last year, according to the National Energy Administration.
China now accounts for more than 40 percent of the world’s total installed capacity, Wu said.
“The need to reduce carbon”
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Beijing aims to bring its emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and zero by 2060, part of its commitments under the Paris climate agreement which seeks to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“Coal cannot peak unless rising consumption demand is fully met by the gradual increase in clean energy,” said David Fishman, a senior director at Lantau Group who specializes in China’s energy sector.
“Gradually increasing solar capacity is an important part of ensuring that all growth in energy demand is met from clean sources.”
The government only allowed about nine gigawatts of new coal power in the first half of 2024, an 83 percent year-over-year decline, according to a report released this month by the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research.
“With new renewable energy installations now able to meet all of China’s energy demand, the need for new coal is declining,” the Finland-based independent research group said.
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But he also warned that construction continued on existing coal projects, potentially slowing Beijing’s energy transition.
Industry shake-up
The blistering rate at which additional solar capacity has been added has not kept pace with developments in the electric grid, causing power to be lost — a phenomenon known as curtailment.
In May, Fitch Ratings said this could continue to increase in the near term, with the solar cut rate for the first quarter of 2024 rising to 4%.
“In the future, in order to control the solar curtailment ratio within a reasonable range, China still has a lot of work to do,” Wu said.
Transferring energy from the West to the East “is also not the most economical approach,” said Gao Yuhe of the environmental group Greenpeace East Asia.
In addition to the majestic parks in the north, China’s solar revolution has also been based on distributed solar power — smaller panels mounted on the roofs of homes and commercial areas, which reduce transmission losses.
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But even this smaller-scale infrastructure needs upgrading to handle the recent increased capacity, Wu said.
Long supported by generous government subsidies, China’s domestic solar panel industry is struggling with a global oversupply crisis that has sent prices crashing and pushed some companies into bankruptcy.
Lantau Group’s Fishman said the intense competition “is good news for manufacturers, who continue to benefit from the cheapest panels the world has ever seen.”
“Once some of them cross their fingers because they can’t handle the competition, the market should stabilize,” he added.
Chinese subsidies have also created friction with global trading partners, with the EU launching an investigation into whether the subsidies have helped domestic firms undercut European competitors.
Beijing denies its industrial policies are unfair and has launched a series of investigations into European imports in apparent retaliation.
Source: AFP
