The provision of energy from renewable sources (RES) in China in 2022 almost reached 50%, and in 2023 it should reach 52% of the total generation capacity. Such a task was set by the Chinese authorities before the Republic's Electricity Council. The achievement of the ambitious goal is reported by Bloomberg, citing a report from the Council.
It was not possible to fully achieve the goal, that is, to reach 50% of renewable energy sources, in 2022, but this may be due to the decision to launch new coal and gas power plants, which partially took over some of the capacities in the final statistics. The need to launch coal and gas power plants arose against the backdrop of rising energy prices, as well as the instability of energy generation and the need to reinsure existing capacities.
The new "dirty" generation, commissioned in 2022, is estimated at about 40 gigawatts, while in 2023 China will continue to increase "dirty capacity". According to the document, new gas and coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 70 gigawatts will be commissioned in the new year. Nevertheless, China's reorientation towards renewable energy is becoming more and more obvious, because the main investments go to this sector. In 2023, the authorities intend to increase the generation of clean energy by a total of 165 gigawatts, of which 100 will come from solar generation, and 65 from wind farms.
Experts and politicians expect that after the lifting of strict quarantine restrictions, the Chinese economy will return to an accelerated growth trajectory, which will provoke demand for energy resources, and energy consumption in the country will begin to grow. Current projections are based on a 6% increase in energy consumption in 2023 after a 3.6% increase in 2022. China is the world's key energy consumer. The current dynamics of prices for oil and partly for other energy resources (gas and coal) depends on news from China. At the end of 2022, the total electricity consumption increased by 3.6% and amounted to 8.637 terawatt/hour.