On the 3rd, Chinese media outlet The Paper (Pengpai Xinwen) reported, in an article titled "The more installed, the more wasted?", that while renewable energy facilities such as solar power generation are rapidly increasing, the situation of not being able to fully utilize the generated electricity continues.

According to the article, Han Wenke, Senior Advisor at the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), stated at the recently held "10th Academic Annual Conference of the China Energy Model Forum" that "towards the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the proportion of electricity generated by wind power and solar power that was discarded without being utilized increased, and this situation became particularly serious in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province."

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration recently announced the "15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development," setting a target to increase the combined installed capacity of wind and solar power generation, which was 1.84 billion kilowatts at the end of 2025, to over 2.8 billion kilowatts by 2030. In other words, the policy is to introduce approximately 1 billion kilowatts of new capacity over the next five years.

However, the data does not allow for optimism. According to reports, the utilization rate for wind power generation in January-February 2026 was 91.5%, and for solar power generation, it was 90.8%, representing a decrease of 2.3 percentage points and 3.1 percentage points respectively from the same period last year. In some regions, the curtailment rate has reached around 10%, becoming particularly severe in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, and Gansu Province. The utilization rate for solar power generation also decreased from 98% in 2023 to 91.2% in January-March this year, indicating that the amount of unutilized renewable energy electricity is increasing with the expansion of installed capacity.

According to Dai Chunyan, Vice President of the Double Carbon Innovation Research Institute at Chongqing Technology and Business University, there are three mismatches behind this situation. First, there is a "regional mismatch," where 78% of the nation's wind and solar power resources are concentrated in western China, while 70% of the national electricity demand is skewed towards the eastern regions.

Next, there is a "price mismatch," where the western regions profit from selling electricity, while the eastern regions use that electricity to create added value in manufacturing and other industries; and as the selling price of renewable energy continues to fall, it has become difficult for western regions to develop high-value-added industries that utilize green electricity.

More seriously, there is a "mismatch in the pace of facility construction," where solar power bases can be built in 1-2 years, but the construction of ultra-high voltage transmission lines requires 3-5 years just for approval. Dai pointed out that "if transmission facilities and power receiving systems do not keep pace, electricity cannot be transmitted even if generated, and even if transmitted, it cannot be fully utilized."

He then proposed that instead of solely relying on the traditional "power transmission from west to east," "local consumption" should also be realized. He explained that by linking data centers with electricity and promoting the relocation of power-intensive industries to the west, it is necessary to help the western regions escape being merely areas that "sell electricity."

Han pointed out at the forum that to develop renewable energy on a large scale during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, new paths must be forged. He stated that the development of 100% renewable energy power generation bases, advanced integration of renewable energy development with existing industries, and the construction of production bases for hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol should be accelerated.

The country has already begun to respond, and in the new system announced in June this year, the use of renewable energy in non-electricity sectors was included as an evaluation target for the first time, and it stipulated stricter responsibilities for renewable energy consumption for both provincial-level entities and energy-intensive industries. Investment in the power grid is also expected to increase by more than 80% compared to the previous five-year period. (Translation and editing by Kitada)