China Tightens Scrutiny to Meet Ambitious Targets For Renewables

China’s largest power firms and provincial authorities will need to submit monthly reports on their renewables projects to the central government as Beijing steps up efforts to meet ambitious clean-energy targets.

The National Energy Administration issued a statement Thursday requiring the country’s energy giants and local governments to send updates on wind, solar and other renewables projects that have been newly approved or under construction, including providing timelines for integration with power grids.

The new rule is set to “further push the development and building of renewable electricity projects”, and to “ensure that annual development and construction goals are achieved”, said the statement.

China’s increased scrutiny on renewables capacity comes as the government wrestles with balancing economic growth and its climate goals. But even as policymakers recently urged an easing of aggressive measures to reduce carbon emissions, Beijing remains fully committed to ramping up more wind and solar projects as part of the goal to peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

President Xi Jinping said in December that the country will have 1,200 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity by 2030. China is set to add about 350 gigawatts of wind and solar by 2025, mainly relying on state-backed power companies; clean energy capacity is expected to overtake coal for the first time this year.

“The central government is already using the clean power mandate to instruct the speed of renewable energy growth at the provincial level, this is likely to be a measure to check progress,” said Jonathan Luan, a BloombergNEF analyst in Beijing.

Source : bloombergquint