News in cooperation with eceee.org

Despite coronavirus, China aims for renewables grid parity

(Eco Business, 4 Jun 2020) The coronavirus epidemic has delayed renewable energy projects, but the Chinese government has no plans to delay the removal of subsidies.

China is sticking to its timetable for removing renewable energy subsidies. Faced with delays caused by Covid-19, developers are under pressure to not only restore production and get supply chains up and running again, but to get extra capacity installed and connected to the grid before subsidies end.

Despite the disruption, the government is set on having wind and solar compete with coal power on price and on schedule – ushering in an era of “grid parity”. Renewables have received subsidies since 2011 and their removal is expected to increase competition in the sector.

Grid connection delays

The pandemic has made it harder to get grid connections in place before subsidy windows close. In May 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top agency for economic policymaking, said that onshore wind power projects approved in 2019 and 2020 and connected to the grid before the end of 2021 would get a lower subsidy than those approved in 2018 and connected to the grid by the end of 2020.

External link

Eco Business, 4 Jun 2020: Despite coronavirus, China aims for renewables grid parity

The energy sufficiency library

eceee's energy sufficiency library contains all concept papers, workshop reports and presentations from the Energy Sufficiency project. It also highlights relevant reports from other sources to help you dig deeper and better understand what sufficiency might mean for you and our society.

External Resources

This section gives you links to other organisations and initiatives that work on energy sufficiency. Read more about the Enough! network, the Swiss 2000W project and the NegaWatt Association in France.