China's Energy Transition

By the end of 2023, China's installed non-fossil energy power generation capacity exceeded 1.5 billion kilowatts (kW), historically surpassing the installed thermal power capacity. From 2013 to 2023, China has made remarkable progress in eliminating outdated coal power capacity and reducing pollutant emissions from the power sector. Cumulatively, it has eliminated more than 100 million kilowatts of outdated coal power capacity and reduced pollutant emissions from the power sector by more than 90%.

In terms of end-use energy, the electrification rate of the whole society reached 28%. Compared with 2012, energy consumption per unit of GDP has dropped by more than 26% cumulatively.

More than half of the incremental electricity consumption of the whole society was new clean energy generation. Clean energy generation amounted to about 3.8 trillion kilowatt-hours, accounting for nearly 40% of the total, an increase of about 15 percentage points from 2013. The installed scale of wind power and photovoltaic power generation has increased tenfold compared with a decade ago, and the installed capacity of clean energy power generation accounts for 58.2% of the total installed capacity. At the same time, the share of clean energy in total energy consumption increased from 15.5% to 26.4%, while the share of coal consumption fell by 12.1 percentage points.

China's annual renewable energy additions have accounted for more than 40% of the world's installed capacity in each of the past ten years. The share of global non-fossil energy consumption increased from 13.6% to 18.5%, with China's contribution reaching 45.2%.

According to Wan Jinsong, deputy director of the National Energy Administration (NEA), China's investment in energy transition reaches $676 billion in 2023, which is the largest investment in energy transition in the world. In addition, China is continuing to expand its open-door cooperation with the outside world, providing high-quality clean energy products and services to the world. in 2023, China's exports of wind power and photovoltaic products helped other countries reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 810 million tons.

At present, China has built a wind power and photovoltaic whole industrial chain R&D, design and manufacturing system, comprehensively mastered the large-scale third-generation pressurized water reactor and high-temperature gas-cooled reactor fourth-generation nuclear power technology, and the hydropower whole industrial chain system is a global leader. Relying on continuous technological innovation, complete industrial chain supply chain system, full market competition, and super-large-scale market, China has not only realized the rapid development of new energy industry, but also pushed down the cost of global wind power and photovoltaic power generation significantly.