top of page
Search
  • Gordon Dumoulin

China's renewable power expansion in 2021... not easy to grasp


๐˜Š๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ขโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ฑ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ 2021, ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜บ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ฑ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜จ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ฆโ€ฆ


Wind power in China is booming, offshore wind saw a 16.9 gigawatt (GW) increase in capacity in 2021, larger than any other country added during the past five years combined. On top of that, China brought online an extra 30.67 GW of onshore wind energy last year.




Chinaโ€™s solar power capacity reached 306 GW by the end of last year with a record 54.9 GW added just in 2021. In total, ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿฒ๐Ÿฏ๐Ÿฑ ๐—š๐—ช ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฟ, ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜‚๐—ฝ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฒ.๐Ÿณ% ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—–๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎโ€™๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†.


The renewable energy capacity is scheduled to increase to ๐Ÿญ,๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ ๐—š๐—ช ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฏ๐Ÿฌ. Yet, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China will meet this target four years earlier - if current speeds are consistent. Chinaโ€™s wind power capacity has increased beyond expectations, and a lot of power comes from offshore wind turbines.





No easy to grasp the scale or impact of renewable energy expansion in China. In a single year of 2021, China added more than 100 GW of wind and solar capacity which is more than the total ever built globally except for just two other countries. And 2021 is not even leading. In 2020, 120 GW was added in wind and solar capacity.


To get an idea, 1 GW is equivalent to power about 750,000 homes or the capacity size of 2 coal-fired power plants. In perspective the electricity system capacity in the Netherlands is about 32 GW while the capacity in Germany about 218 GW (2019). So one can do some imagination for an annual 100 GW capacity expansion.






๐—–๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎโ€™๐˜€ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐˜† ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜. Kiran Aziz, Head of Responsible Investment at KLP, Norwayโ€™s largest pension fund was quoted โ€œFrom the perspective of a coal-free ESG investor, this new announcement of connecting around 17 GW offshore wind just last year will resonate in boardrooms. Its wind sector is now increasingly attractive for foreign investment, alongside its solar sectorโ€


Read more about what makes Chinaโ€™s renewable energy capacity track possible here :


What the 2021 China Wind Power Boom Means for the World | EnergyTrackerAsia


#windenergy #windpower #solarenergy #renewableenergy #zerocarbon #sustainability


36 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page