We knew that China was betting everything on infrastructure for the adoption of renewable energy, news about new projects and strategies have been around for the past few months. For example, earlier this year we learned of the cancellation of 104 coal plants they were building, which adapts to its ambitious plan to reduce pollution and combat climate change.
The National Energy Administration in China (NEA) is confirming a new milestone, as the Asian country was able to double its power generation capacity via photovoltaics. This makes China the world 's largest solar power producer by capacity.
20% renewable energy by 2030
According to the NEA, China closed 2016 with a PV capacity of 77.42 gigawatts, which means an increase of 34.54 gigawatts during the 12 months of last year. No doubt this is an impressive achievement, but we must bear in mind that we are talking about total capacity, something that may not sound so impressive if the relationship is made to the total population of the country.
Today, solar PV represents for China as only 1% of the total production of energy for the country, while the mix of renewable energy and occupies 11%, and plans to increase this percentage to 20 % By 2030. For this, China will be investing $ 364 billion just for new renewable energy projects by 2020.
To all this is added the recent announcement that the Beijing government will reduce coal use by 30% this 2017, something that has become a priority in the city at the alarming pollution levels. To achieve this, four large coal-fired power plants will be closed down to be replaced by new solar farms this year, as well as new incentives for the sale of electric cars, as it also contemplates removing 300,000 'old' vehicles that contribute To the increase of these levels.
The reality is that China is making a strong bid to lead the adoption of clean energy, where despite having the "disadvantage" of its large population, has large areas where the installation of solar thermal and photovoltaic farms viable and parks Wind.