China makes firm strides in green energy development

China will accelerate the transition to a model of green development, said the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

The country must work faster to adjust and improve the industrial structure, the energy mix, and the composition of the transportation sector. The country will implement a comprehensive conservation strategy, conserve resources of all types and use them efficiently, and move faster to put in place a system for recycling waste and used materials, the report pointed out.

Photo shows the 100MW molten-salt concentrated solar power plant located in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province. (People's Daily/Yi Xiao)

Over the past 10 years, China has achieved remarkable results in the development of new energy sector. The country's installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power has ranked as the top worldwide.

In 2021, China generated 1.15 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity from renewable energy, which was basically equivalent to the total electricity consumption of Chinese residents in the same year.

Meanwhile, as China has made continuous progress in technologies that spur new energy power generation and has effectively lowered the cost of new energy power generation, the country has managed to enhance its competitiveness globally.

The output of China's domestically produced wind turbines occupies more than two-thirds of the global market share, and the domestic photovoltaic industry provides at least 70 percent of photovoltaic modules for the global market.

Aerial photo taken on Aug. 17, 2020 shows a photovoltaic power station in Talatan, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province.  (Xinhua/Zhang Long)

China's new energy development has basically entered a new phase where such energy is reasonably priced and subsidies are phased out, laying a solid foundation for the development of the industry on a large scale and for making the industry more market-oriented.

The development of the new energy industry in China has delivered fruitful benefits to the people. Since 2014, China has built solar photovoltaic power stations with a total capacity of 26 million kW for poverty alleviation, which can yield benefits totaling about 18 billion yuan ($2.48 billion) in power generation each year.