Below are 8 critical updates of what happened in the Chinese clean energy policymaking and market progress last week. Some of the highlights include:
- RE Regulation: NDRC’s new policy for the government offices may lead to a distributed solar construction boom; Qinghai announced +46GW “renewable hybrid” and “renewable plus storage” projects, setting the tone for the next round of RE+ investment boom in China.
- Hydrogen: two signals suggest that Beijing could soon make the final confirmation of the first cities selected for the FCV application demonstration, as Shanghai concluded a 7-party city alliance cooperation agreement and MIIT issued an FCV testing standard.
- Energy Storage: Guangdong confirmed to add 2GW new storage capacity in 14th FYP, and Zhejiang plans 1GW. The provincial plans pave the way for the storage investment scene.
Please scroll down for the 8 updates.
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Renewable
New Policy Requiring Government Purchase of Renewable May Create Significantly Solar Demand
Last week NDRC and National Government Offices Administration (NGOA) issued a joint policy that requires government offices to set an example and push ahead low-carbon development.
The policy set decarbonized agenda in 10 different sectors for the Chinese government offices. Among the ten, governmental offices are required to utilize renewable power and to substitute fossil fuel consumption. According to the policy, government offices should lead by example by purchasing NEVs, purchasing PV solar, wind power, geothermal, heat pumps, and energy storage technology.
Energy Iceberg’s Note: there are +1.6m government offices in China. The policy could spur a new round of distributed renewable (PV especially) construction by these organizations. The demand could be over 158GW, according to a rough estimation of Chinese industry media Beijixing.
Qinghai Unleashed Unheard-of +42GW “Renewable Plus” Projects
Qinghai Government last week released the list of 20 wind/solar power projects to kick off this year. Notably, all 20 projects are integrated wind and solar power generation “plus” energy storage projects. Many of these 20 also integrated with distributed electricity applications such as mining, dissertation-combating, power-to-heating.
The total storage capacity will be 5.2GW.
CEIC has the biggest share of the pie. It will develop three and co-developed another one with TrinaSolar. The capacity of the four is 16.4GW, of which one project is 11GW.
Huadian and Datang won second and third place–taking 5GW and 4GW.
Other developers include Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group, SUPCON, Luneng, China Huaneng, CGN, CEEC, PowerChina, CTG, CNNC, SPIC, and Beijing Energy.
Energy Iceberg: we have explained in length why is there an investment hype of “renewable plus” or “energy hybrid” in China and what does it mean to the energy storage market. It is interesting to see a new developer (SUPCON) in this trend. It shows that the downstream electricity users are joining the RE investment game.
Last week Energy Iceberg spoke about this trend both in China Construction Bank Australia’s Green China Summit and the HSBC RE series. A key slide to share with you:
New Policy Allows Renewable Developers to Build RE-to-Grid Connection
NDRC also unleashed a policy last week that allows renewable developers to build or co-develop transmission lines to connect the renewable projects to the main grid. These transmission assets “could be purchased by the grid companies based on negotiation in a suitable time.”
Energy Iceberg: the policy is designed to address the mismatch of construction speed of RE projects and the grid connection. Nevertheless, “in a suitable time” is a noteworthy keyword.
Wind
First Oversea Offshore Wind Order of DEC; First Chinese OW Turbine Export to Vietnam
Last week, Dongfang Electric (DEC) announced that it had delivered the first batch of offshore wind turbines for the “Changhai” Offshore Wind Power Project in Vietnam.
The milestone marks the first overseas order secured by DEC, the leading offshore wind turbine market contender in China, which developed the first 10MW OW turbine in China.
The “Changhai” Offshore Wind Power Project is located in Bến Tre Province, Vietnam, with a total installed capacity of 63MW. It will embark 14 DEC’s 4.5MW permanent magnet direct-drive offshore wind turbines.
Energy Iceberg Note: with Chinese offshore wind engineering companies taking a larger role in Vietnam’s wind power market development, Chinese turbine OEMs are securing export opportunities. Goldwind and Envision have both exported turbines to the onshore projects in the Southeast Asian country.
Hydrogen Storage & Fuel Cells
Shanghai city has finally concluded the cooperation deal with Suzhou (Jiangsu), Nantong (Jiangsu), Jiaxing (Zhejiang), Zibo (Shandong), Ordos (Inner Mongolia) and Ningxia province for cooperating in the national fuel cell vehicle application demonstration programme funded by the Ministry of Finance.
The deal confirms the Shanghai-led city alliance for the FCV funding. Previously, industry media has revealed that Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing are the top-3 chosen by Bejing for the FCV subsidy (funding), while the two others would be Hebei and Henan provinces.
Leading PV Firm LONGi signed 10 Hydrogen Deals in the Past Three Months–short summary
Xi’an LONGi (LONGI), the world’s biggest solar company, has secured 10 hydrogen energy-related project since it set up a hydrogen business unit this April.
LONGi’s cooperation partners include:
- Large central energy companies such as China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, China Gas, Guohua Investment;
- Government high-tech industrial parks such as Wuxi High-tech Zone and Xi’an High-tech Zone;
- Scientific research institutions like Tongji University;
- Listed power development companies ions like Shenergy;
- Wind and solar developers such as Mingyang Smart Energy, Tianrun New Energy, Ningxia Jiayang and others.
LONGi’s attempt behind these 10 deals are clear. Its focus is on power-to-gas and green gas production equipment projects.
Energy Iceberg’s Note: the market shows over-investment signs for fuel cell manufacturing. The new investment trend is clearly PtG and green-hydrogen production equipment.
China’s MIIT Unleashed Critical Fuel-Cell Vehicle Testing Standard, Paving Way for FCV Subsidy
Ministry of Industry and Information for Technology (MIIT) released the FCV Testing Standard, which is considered a complementary action policy for China’s National Fuel Cell Demonstration Programme.
The standard document laid down testing measures for the fuel cell stack output, low-temperature cold start, driving range and other critical aspects required to be measured in the FCV subsidy programme.
Some believe that the document heralds the final announcement of the FCV demo plan soon.
Energy Storage & Battery
The local energy administration of Guangdong last week revealed that the province has built up 361.3MW “new-type” energy storage [meaning: everything other than pumped-hydro]. During 14th Five-year plan, it will strive to add 2GW.
The emphasis of the energy storage development will be on thermal coal-fired power generation plus storage and renewable plus storage.
Energy Iceberg: the statement came after NDRC’s energy storage policy draft to achieve 30GW cumulative new type energy storage capacity by 2025. Provinces will soon design their energy storage roadmap in the 14th FYP.
Separately, Zhejiang this week also announced that it looks to add 1GW new storage.