H1 green energy capacity up 8.1%

Installed capacity within China's renewable energy sector, including solar and wind power, continued growing during the first half, as the country goes full throttle on its green energy transition with the aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2060.

The country's total installed renewable power generation capacity reached 2.44 billion kilowatts in the first half, up 8.1 percent year-on-year.

Installed wind power capacity meanwhile rose 17.2 percent year-on-year to 340 million kW while that for solar power rose to 340 million kW, 25.8 percent higher compared with the same period the previous year, said the National Energy Administration.

According to the administration, first-half renewable power engineering investment by major power generation enterprises in the country rose 14 percent year-on-year to 215.8 billion yuan ($31.96 billion), with that for solar power generation up 283.6 percent to 63.1 billion yuan.

Investment in power grid projects rose to 190.5 billion yuan, up 9.9 percent compared with the first six months of 2021, it said.

Wei Hanyang, a power market analyst at research firm BloombergNEF, said that China, as the world's largest producer of wind and solar energy as well as the top domestic and outbound investor in renewable energy, has for years been the leader in renewable energy figures.

With the entire world seeing rising demand for onshore wind and solar panels, China still manages to keep up with fast deployments in renewable energy, Wei said.

"In the second half, we expect solar power will embrace another wave of massive installations given that solar module prices may slightly adjust to a less pricier level," he said.

China's total installed capacity of renewable energy generation has increased by around 90 times over the past 10 years, with generation capacity of hydropower, wind, solar and biomass ranking tops in the world, the administration said.

The combined installed capacity of wind and solar power in China has reached 670 million kW, almost 90 times that of 2012. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), China's renewable energy generation capacity is expected to account for more than 50 percent of the country's total and the generation capacity for wind and solar power will be doubled, it said.