The Achievement, Significance and Future Prospect of China's

Sun Yubiao (Orcid ID: 0000-0002-6462-9540)

The achievement, significance and future prospect of China’s

renewable energy initiative

Yubiao Sun1,a

a School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia

Abstract China’s high-speed economic growth and ambitious urbanization depend heavily on the massive consumption of fossil fuel. However, the over-dependence on the depleting fossil fuels cause severe environmental problems, making China the largest energy consumer and the biggest CO2 emitter in the world. Faced with significant challenges in terms of managing its environment and moving forward with the concept of sustainable economic development, the Chinese government plans to move away from fossil fuels and rely on renewables such as hydropower, wind power, solar power, biomass power and nuclear power. In this paper, the current status of China’s renewable energy deployment and the ongoing development projects are summarized and discussed. Most recent developments of major renewable energy sources are clearly reviewed. Additionally, the renewable energy development policies including laws and regulations, economic encouragement, technical research and development are also summarized. This study showcases China’s achievements in exploiting its abundant domestic renewable energy sources to meet the future energy demand and reducing carbon emissions. To move towards a low carbon society, technological progress and policy improvements are needed for improving grid access (wind), securing nuclear fuel supplies and managing safety protocols (nuclear), integrating supply chains to achieve indigenous manufacture of technologies across supply chains (solar). Beyond that, a preliminary prediction of the development of China’s future renewable energy developments, and proposes targeted countermeasures and suggestions are proposed. The proposal involves developing smart-grid system, investing on renewable energy

1 Corresponding author: [email protected]

This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/er.5243

research, improving the feed-in tariff system and clarifying the subsidy system.

Keywords: Renewable energy, Economic growth, China, Hydropower, Wind, Solar, Bioenergy, Feed-in tariff system

1. Introduction

Decades of rapid economic growth and the accelerated urbanization require China to dramatically expand its energy needs. Meanwhile, China’s population will reach its peak around 2030, close to 1.45 billion with one billion urban population [1]. The huge population and immeasurable manufacturing-based economy make China become the world’s most important consumer of energy, the biggest producer and consumer of coal, and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Even if China is well advanced in deploying supercritical and ultra-supercritical coal plants, as well as integrated (coal) gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants, it consumed about 4.3 billion tons of coal in 2013, more than half the world total, and coal peaked at more than 70% of China’s primary energy then, dropping to 64% in 2015 as fossil fuel generation declined [2].

China’s primary energy demand will peak and plateau around 2035 at 3.91GW (Figure 1), approximately 5.6 billion tons of coal equivalent. In 2012, China replaced the United States as the largest energy consumer (Figure 2(a)), accounting for 20.3% of global energy consumption [3]. In 2017, this value has increased to 23.2% (Figure 2(b)). China’s great dependence on coal for power generation inevitably causes significant urban air pollution. It was reported that in 2014, 71% of China’s emissions came from coal, much higher than the 31% in the United States and 33 % in the European Union [4]. By 2020 it is expected to use some 3.5 billion tons of coal annually, and for coal to comprise only 55% of primary energy consumption. But this coal-powered energy system faces critical challenges and severe critiques, such as shortages of resources, low energy efficiency, high emissions and environmental damage, and lack of effective management systems [5].

To guarantee a sustainable development and progress towards a clean future, China launched the “13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020)” in 2016 with an emphasis on clean energy development and primary pollution reduction. China set the target of reducing its carbon emission by 60% to 65% by 2030 from the 2005 level, and increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20% [6]. From 2008 to 2017, the installed capacity of solar, wind and hydro power in China grew at average

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annual rates of 135.3%, 34.6% and 7.1%, respectively., Renewable energy generated 635 million kW electricity, constituting 35.7% of the total installed capacity of electric power at the end of 2017. Among them, hydropower (341 million kW) holds the largest share (19.2%); installed wind power (164 million kW) accounts for 9.2% ; installed capacity of solar power is 130 million kW, with a share of 7.3% [7]. In 2016, renewable electricity (1506 billion kW) in total accounted for 25.3% of the total electricity consumption, with year-on-year growth of 0.9% [8].

In the next few decades, clean energy development is a big trend. A study has evaluated the feasibility of the clean world that 100% powered by renewable energy by 2050, i.e., providing all energy for all purposes (electric power, transportation, and heating/cooling), everywhere in the world, from wind, water, and the sun [10, 11]. Many governments and organizations push their heads towards this goal. For instance, the EU plans for renewables to provide 20% and 55% of its total energy needs by 2020 and 2050, respectively [12]. Germany and the U.S. claims to achieve 80% renewable electricity by 2050 while Denmark proposes an aggressive goal of getting rid of fossil energy by 2050 [12].

As a big player, China shows strong determination to move away from fossil fuel-based power production to eco-friendly power generation and its investments in renewable energy grows at a record pace. China plans to achieve 16% renewables by 2030 while aggressive studies reveal that China should be able to reach 26% renewable energy by 2030 and 60% renewable energy and 86% renewable electricity by 2050 [12]. In 2017, China invested $125.9 billion for renewable energy development, accounting for almost half of the global investment in renewables. This big investment makes renewable energy encompass 36.6% of China’s total installed electric power capacity, and 26.4% of total power generation [13]. China is vigorously developing new and renewable energy increasingly to secure its future energy needs. The advances in energy-related technologies promote the development of solar, wind, biomass and other renewable energy sources. Widening the utility of renewable energy will facilitate China’s low carbon power transition.

Renewable energy development cannot proceed without technology progress, especially for wind and solar energy. Recent years witnessed the substantial advancement in low-wind power generation technology, wind power consumption technology, and micro grid technology. Energy storage technology also

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experiences fast grow. Currently China is a major producer and exporter of renewable energy technology, for instance, nearly two-thirds of the world's solar panels and approximately half of the world's wind turbines are made by Chinese manufacturers [14].

A theoretical study was conducted to evaluate renewable energy in China and how it will impact China’s macro economy and environment. The study found that several preconditions are necessary to achieve a high share of renewable energy in China’s future primary energy mix: (a) low-carbon-biased industry with efficient energy use; (b) large scale installation for wind and solar PV power (more than 2000 GW each); (c) huge investment in renewable deployment. Under such ideal conditions, the maximum shares of renewable energy and non-fossil energy in power generation could reach 74% and 78% in 2050, which will be equivalent 56% and 60% of the total primary energy, respectively [15].

Another study assumes a future Chinese electricity system with 100% renewable penetration (50% wind and 50% solar). The system cost are mainly determined by wind turbines and solar PVs, whose capacity installation depends on local capacity factors. in terms of backup energy and levelized cost, a mix of 80% wind and 20% solar would be the optimal choice [17].

Some other studies were undertaken to examine China's potential pathway to a low- carbon economy by 2050, including:

•The IEA's Energy Technology Perspectives on China-specific analysis [18]; •The Chinese Energy Research Institute Technology Roadmap for Low Carbon Society in China [19]; •Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's report on China's Energy and Carbon Emissions Outlook to 2050 [20]; •Stockholm Environment Institute's (2011) The Economics of Climate Change in China: Towards a Low-Carbon Economy [21]; •Harvard Kennedy School’s report on China's Carbon Emissions [22].

In the academic world, scholars are more concerned about China's future energy consumption and carbon emissions. Some researchers assesses China's energy use and

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emissions under an integrated assessment framework and they have developed different models to conduct this evaluation, such as Chen’s MARKAL model [23]; Jiang’s IPAC- AIM model [24]; Li’s 3E model [25]; Chai and Zhang’s LCEM model [26]; and Li’s TH-IESOM model [27]. These integrated assessment studies assumed fossil energy as an aggregate form and comprehensively analyzed China's energy use and carbon emissions in the future in the long term (e.g. 2030, 2050, or 2100).

More recently, another group of researchers focuses on specific topics. Liu et al. (2011), based on Denmark’s 100% renewable energy system and the fact that China’s abundant domestic renewable energy sources, analyzed the feasibility of a 100% renewable energy system in China [28]. Liu et al. (2011) undertook a comprehensive analysis of CO2 mitigation costs, mitigation potential, and fossil energy conversation capacity of renewable energy and other mitigation options, evaluated the influence of renewable energy on the mitigation strategy of China and made a preliminary prediction of China’s renewable energy development for future decades [29].

China’s “13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020)” attaches great importance to the deployment of the renewable energy, aiming for a clean and sustainable development style. Approaching the end of this five-year plan, substantial progress has been made and thriving renewable market expands rapidly in China. However, the comprehensive and introductory reports on China’s most recent renewable development are almost impossible. One can hardly find systematic reports on the latest trend of China’s renewable energy development. This knowledge gap as well as the thriving renewable market in China are the two driving factors for this paper. Here we supplement the newest data and systematically introduce the resource potential, the status quo of development and utilization, policy situation and the obstacles of different renewable energy in China. As a summary of various renewable energy sources in China. this paper enables readers up-to-date the newest progress in China’s renewable energy development. Moreover, this paper also explores the interrelationship between renewable energy development and CO2 emissions. Main objectives of the review include:

(1) Introduction of the current energy structure in China; (2) Summary of the current achievements of renewable energy development in China; (3) Description the challenges in the development of renewable energy in China (4) Prediction of China’s future renewable prospect and some suggestions to facilitate China’s efforts towards a sustainable development.

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2. Overview of China’s renewable energy status

China has fairly-abundant fossil fuel reserve, mainly dominated by coal. By 2006, the reserves of coal stood at 1,034.5 billion tons, with the remaining exploitable reserves accounting for 13 % of the world total. Besides, China also has some reserve of oil shale, coal-bed gas and other unconventional fossil energy resources for exploitation and small reserves of oil and natural gas. Under the pressure of climate change, air pollution control and increasing competitiveness of renewable energy technologies, China strives to generate electricity from non-fossil fuels, which will account for 86.4% of the power generation growth by 2050 [9]. In the future, the diversified, low-carbon renewable energy will replace coal-fired power, as exemplified by the steady increase of non-fossil fuels, reaching 43.5% and 55% by 2035 and 2050, respectively.

China aimed for an 20% non-fossil fuels share in its primary energy consumption by 2030, along with reducing CO2 emissions by 60 to 65% from 2005 levels by 2030. As China enters a ‘new normal’ phase with a priority of environmental protection, various renewable power sources are required to meet its energy demand. Chinese government announced that, by 2020 coal capacity will be limited to 1100 GWe, and gas in 2020 is projected at 110 GWe, hydro 340 GWe, wind 210 GWe, and solar 110 GWe of which distributed PV is to be 60 GWe [2]. Non-fossil 770 GWe will then produce 15% of electricity. By 2030 nuclear capacity will be 120 to 150 GWe, and nuclear will provide 8% to 10% of electricity. As we know, renewable energy resources are abundant, but utilizing them involves some special technical, economic and environmental problems. The following part will briefly introduce the development status of renewable energies in China. Major renewable energies include as hydro energy, bio-energy, wind energy, solar energy and other renewable energy, including geothermal energy and ocean energy [30]. The growing contribution of these renewable energy sources in energy structure can be seen in Figure 3.

Even if two-thirds of China’s electricity capacity still come from coal, clean energy sources such as wind, solar and biomass will climb to 8 % of its electricity generation in 2020, with nuclear and hydropower representing most of the rest. In 2050, China's coal consumption will decline to only about 70% of that in 2016. The electricity gap from shrinking coal consumption will be compensated by non-fossil fuels. As is shown in Figure 4, as proportion of coal in primary energy consumption drops to 42.5% by 2035 and further to 33% by 2050, the share of non-fossil fuels will increase to 25.5%

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and 35% by 2035 and 2050, respectively.

Due to the vast investment in renewable energy (Figure 5), China's installed renewable energy power capacity reached 3.8 million kilowatts by the end of 2013, accounting for 30% of the whole country’s total installed capacity. The past few decades have witnessed China efforts towards as this goal, as is illustrated by the various supportive policies designed by the central government (Table 1). As China's largest renewable energy source, hydroelectric installed capacity increases steadily at between 3.5 and 4 % to achieve the target of 380 GW by 2020. In 2017, hydropower generated 1,194 TWh, accounting for nearly 20 % of China's total power generation and far outstripping wind (5 %) and solar (2 %)[31].

The installed solar photovoltaic capacity and hydro power reached 2.24 million kW in 2011 and 10573.91 in 2012 [33]. The installed capacity of nuclear power had reached 1364.376 (10,000t coal equivalent) in 2012. It has been acknowledged that, to realize the 2030 non-fossil primary energy share target, the requirements on renewable capacity installation still remain demanding. For hydropower, because of much higher development cost of hydropower projects and much longer transmission distance from load centers, the new capacity installation, after a boom at around 20GW annually during 2005–2015, will drop to 4GW annually during the 13th FYP period. However, to realize the non-fossil primary energy target, 11GW new capacity must be added annually during 2020–2030.

For nuclear power, the annual installation was 3.3GW during 2010–2015, while it must nearly double to 6.3GW during 2015–2020 and then increase to around 7.8GW during 2020–2030 [34, 35]. For wind power, the historical boom was 20GW annually during 2010–2015[36]. However, after a stable growth of about 20GW annually during 2015– 2020 the annual growth must increase to 29GW annually during 2020–2030 [37]. For PV, an increasing annual installation from 8.5GW annually during 2010–2015, to 13.5GW during 2015–2020, and to 24GW during 2020–2030 is required [38]. In a word, with nearly double capacity addition from 2005 to 2015 to 2020–2030, the supply capability of wind and solar power could be a constraining factor to non-fossil primary energy target.

In 2017, the newly installed solar power capacity in China stood at 53.1GW, more than half of the global new solar power capacity [39]. Meanwhile, new installed wind power capacity stood at 15 GW, accounting for approximately one-fourth of its global new installed capacity. For biomass, the newly added power stood at 12.9 GW and 2.7 GW,

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respectively [40]. China’s power industry’s installed capacity increase remains at a significant pace, while there is a clear trend towards low-carbon power compositions.

The 15% non-fossil primary energy target set in the planned renewable energy development and the primary energy consumption planning can hardly be reached by 2020. The rising renewable curtailment has made China to direct more efforts on improving energy efficiency. Hence China has to accelerate its energy transition and promote energy revolution. Recent years have witnessed the proportion of renewable energy consumption increases from 6.63% in 2011 to 11.76% in 2017 (Figure 6).

3. Hydropower

The energy contained in falling water has been exploited to produce electricity for more than 135 years. Among the common forms of renewable energy, hydropower is now the only energy resource that can be commercially developed on a large scale [41]. In 2016, China became one of the leading hydropower producing countries worldwide and announced the 13th five-year plan for energy development. After establishing the basic policy frameworks, China planned to increase its total pumped storage capacity to 40GW by 2020 [42].

Generating 71% of the total renewable electricity, hydropower becomes the world’s leading renewable source for electricity production. In 2016, China’s total installed capacity of hydropower was 331 GW, producing 1,180.7 TWh of power, accounting for over a quarter of the world’s electricity generation [43]. The major advantages of hydropower are listed below.  Affordable: Once constructed and installed, the cost of operating and maintaining a hydropower plant is relatively low and affordable. And water, its “fuel” will not be depleted during the generation of electricity and thus is infinite. Besides, unlike other fossil-based sources of fuel, which need to be purified or transformed when applied to produce energy, water is immediately available for use and causes no production costs.  Eco-friendly: Using water to generate electricity, hydropower is clean and gives off small amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Compared with fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gases, it does not cause air pollution or leave any toxic byproducts harmful to the environment.

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 Efficient: While the best fossil fuel plants can only transfer as much as 50% of the energy into electricity, the efficiency of a hydroelectric plant can achieve 90%, making hydropower one of the most efficient approach to providing electricity [44].  Flexible: Based on its unique voltage control, hydropower is capable of changing output predictably and quickly, which means it can be directed to satisfy the changing electricity demand and offers electric-power ancillary services to keep the balance between demand and supply.  Secure: Mainly as a domestic source of energy, water rarely suffers from disruptions from foreign suppliers, international political crises, cost fluctuations in power markets, or transportation outages.  Other benefits: Except for the advantages listed above, hydropower projects also help to control floods, maintain water supply, irrigate the cropland, and provide wildlife habitat.

3.1 Historical development of hydropower energy in China

In 1910, China built the first hydropower plant, Shilong dam hydropower station in Yunnan Province [45]. Its installed capacity increased from the initial 0.48 MW to 6,000 kW after seven expansions in 1958 [46, 47]. The second half of the 20th century witnessed the substantial development of China’s hydropower energy. In 1959, the country finished the construction of Xin'an River hydroelectric station on the upper stream of the Qian Tang River in Zhejiang Province [48]. Different to the Shilong dam hydropower station, which featured advanced foreign equipment, technology and management, the construction of Xin'an River hydroelectric station was based on domestic design and equipment, making it a milestone in the development of China’s hydropower industry. Other large hydroelectric plants built in this period include the first cascade hydropower plant Fujian Gutian Creek station (1951), the Sanmenxia Dam on the border between Henan Province and Shanxi Province (1960), the Zhexi Dam in Hunan Province (1962), the Liujiaxia Dam in Gansu Province (1969), the Gezhouba Dam in Hubei Province (1988), etc.

Massive construction of the hydropower plants was encouraged by the renewable energy policy. During the First Five-Year Plan in China (1953-1957), construction of the country’s first million-kilowatt class facility Liujiaxia Dam was begun. Then during the Second Five-year Plan (1958-1962), the national economic plan (1958) emphasized the importance and necessity of the long-term construction of hydroelectric plants,

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prompting the development of hydropower [49]. In 1970, construction of the Gezhouba Dam, the first large-scale water control project on the Yangtze River, began in Hubei Province. Then in 1994, the country started to build the Three Gorges Dam, which spans the Yangtze River and is well known for its largest installed capacity (22,500 MW) worldwide [50]. The leading-edge technology digested and transferred from the foreign countries fosters the domestic independent research and innovation, laying the foundation for the establishment of extensive hydropower facilities with new materials and large installed capacity.

Entering the 21st century, Chinese government deepens the reform of the energy structure and further enhances the development of hydropower energy. With the total installed capacity of hydropower exceeding 100 GW, China became the world’s leading country in electricity generation in 2004. 2006 saw the completion of the Three Gorges Dam’s body, along with the commenced building of other large hydroelectric plants. The country’s installed hydropower capacity had exceeded 200 GW by 2010 and increased to over 300 GW in 2015 [45]. Some of the largest hydropower stations are shown in Figure 7.

3.2 Current situation of hydropower development in China

Standing at the forefront of hydropower energy development worldwide, China increased its installed hydropower capacity to 331 GW in 2016, making up over a quarter of the world’s total electricity generation [43]. In January 2017, the Chinese government released the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) on energy development, aiming at minimizing reliance on coal and increasing the share of non-fossil energy to over 15%. To achieve this goal, the government arranged for an additional 60 GW of hydropower. Among all the hydropower plants under construction, the most distinct one is the Wudongde Dam on the Jinsha River across Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces. Designed to have 10.2 GW installed capacity with an annual production of 38.9 billion KWh. As the world’s seventh-largest hydropower plants in terms of installed capacity, this hydropower station is envisioned to be in operation in 2021 [51].

Despite the sustainable and accelerated development of conventional hydropower, China’s pumped storage capacity faces a serious shortage, the total volume of which only accounted for 1.5 % of the country’s installed electricity capacity in 2016 [52]. To address this problem, the government lays great emphasis on expanding its total

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pumped storage capacity to 40 GW by 2020 to prove stability in the grid [53]. Started in 2011, construction of the Liyang project (1.5GW) has been finished in 2017 [54]. In process is the construction of 3 pumped storage hydroelectric power stations commissioned in 2016: Qinyuan (960MW), Hongping (1.2GW) and Xianju (1.5GV). Besides, a total pumped storage capacity exceeding 30GW was achieved.

Along with the development of domestic hydropower energy, the 13th Five-Year Plan also highlighted the international cooperation, the environmental and ecological protection and the alleviation of poverty. In addition, aimed at protecting the environment, the government released ‘guidelines on promoting the development of small hydropower plants’, putting forward plans to build a number of small hydroelectric stations in China by 2030 and integrating up-to-date technology with the practice for plant construction, management and operation [55, 56]. Projects commissioned in 2016 include Qirehatal (210MW), Huangfeng (225MV), Lizhou (345MV) and Tongzilin (600MV).

3.2.1 Distribution characteristics of hydroelectric resources

The distribution of hydropower resources are highly uneven in China. With the heavy electricity demand in the east, most of the hydroelectric sources are distributed in the southwestern China. According to the statistics of technical exploitable capacity, over 80 % of the hydropower resources are distributed in the 12 western provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. The %age drops to 13.66% when it comes to central China. And the 11 provinces with remarkable economic development in the eastern part only have 4.88% of the total hydropower resources [49]. As the distribution of hydroelectric resources does not match the development of regional economy (Figure 8), the Chinese government started the “West to East” Electricity Transmission Project in 1996 [57]. Mostly completed in 2010, this project covers 3 major trunks (North, Middle and South) to combat “energy poverty” [58].

Besides, great rivers lay the foundation of the hydropower sources in China. The Ministry of Water Resources pinpointed 13 hydropower bases in different river basins across the country [59]. Existence of these great rivers contributes to the construction of large hydroelectric stations with enormous installed capacity, making the mass transmission of hydropower energy possible [60]. Influenced significantly by monsoon, the water inflow of these rivers changes considerably within a year and between

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different years. Around 60% to 80% of the annual precipitation occurs during the rainy season [61]. Therefore, during the design, construction and operation of hydropower stations, it’s crucial to take into account the specific flow adjustment to achieve a stable and substantial generation of electricity. In addition, despite the massive construction of medium and small sized hydropower stations, large water control projects like the Three Gorges Dam and Xiaolangdi Key Water Control Project provide the great majority of the total installed capacity in China.

3.2.2 The distribution of large hydropower plants in China

A long-term development plan for hydraulic projects was launched in the 1980s to prompt the construction of hydropower plants, as the rapid economic development and urbanization boosted the demand for electrical energy in China [30]. With the coal-fired power contributing to most of the electricity generation (66% in 2016), this plan aims to increase the proportion of clean hydropower in the country’s electricity structure [62]. 1. The Jinsha River: Running through the Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, the Jinsha River is the upper stretches of the Yangtze River in western China, holding potentially the largest hydropower resources across the country due to its large flow magnitude and drop in elevation. The current installed capacity of this river is 63,830MV, including 4 large hydroelectric stations (Baihetan, Wudongde, Xiangjiaba, and Xiluodu) with high installed capacity (42,960 MV in total) and regulating storage [62, 63]. In March 2014, there were a total of 25 hydropower plants completed, under construction or scheduled for this river [64]. 2. The Yalong River: The Yalong River is the largest tributary of the Jinsha River located in western Sichuan Province. Flowing through deep valleys, its middle and lower stretches have a considerable elevation drop. In 2014, a total of 23 hydropower plants were completed, under construction or planned for this river [65]. Completed on December 1999, the Ertan dam with an installed capacity of 3.3 GW was the largest hydropower plant constructed during the 20th century in China [66]. 3. The Dadu River: The Dadu River is a secondary side stream of the Yangtze River in Sichuan Province with an installed capacity of 23,480 MV and an annual generating capacity of 105.31 TWh [67]. In 2014, there were a total of 26 hydropower plants completed, under construction or scheduled for this river [64, 68]. Besides, started in 2008 and expected to be complete in 2018, the

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Shuangjiangkou Dam under construction on the Dadu River will become the tallest dam around the world [69]. 4. The Wu River: As the largest southern tributary of the Yangtze River, the Wu River had a combined capacity of 8.5 GW, and its annual power generation in 2010 was over 4 times of that in 2005 [13]. In 2014, there were 10 hydropower plants completed, under construction or arranged for this river [64]. Areas around the river are rich in coal and many other minerals. Construction of hydroelectric projects is aimed at leveraging the exploitation of multiple resources in those regions. 5. The Upper-Yangtze River: Making up 55.8% of the Yangtze River, the Upper- Yangtze River is the reach downstream of the Jinsha River with a relatively low elevation drop (220m) [62]. Relying on its large magnitude of flow, the Three Gorges Dam with an installed capacity of 22.5 GW has been completed on this stretch in 2003 [70]. In 2015, there were 17 large water control projects in operation, under construction or planned for this river [71]. Apart from the two large hydropower plants, the Xiangjiaba Dam and the Xiluodu Dam with an installed capacity of 6,448 MV and 13,860 MW respectively, other medium and small sized cascaded hydro stations have also been proposed for its side streams. 6. The Nanpan and Hongshui Rivers: The upper tributaries of the Pearl River, the third largest river in China, are called the Nanpan and Hongshui Rivers. Huge hydropower plants built on these rivers include Tianshengqiao Dam, Yantan Dam, Longtan Dam, etc. Electrical energy produced from those dams are primarily fed into the Pearl River Delta, the most developed region across the country, to further enhance the economic development in those areas. 7. The Lancang River: The Lancang River refers to the upper reaches of the Mekong River. In the 1980s, China started the construction of 8 hydropower plants on this river, four of which were completed in 2010. Large dams built along the river contain the 292-meter-tall Xianwan Dam, the largest arch dam globally, the Manwan Dam located in the middle reach with an installed capacity of 1,500 MV, and the Nuozhadu Dam completed in 2012 with an installed capacity of 5,850 MW [72, 73]. 8. The Upper-Yellow River: The Upper-Yellow River refers to the upper reaches of the Yellow River flowing through the northwestern part of China with infertile land and low population densities. Sixteen hydropower plants with a total installed capacity of 14 GW are constructed along the river [62]. 9. The Middle-Yellow River: After the Yellow River turns sharply in Inner

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Mongolia to the south, the middle reaches of this river flows through the longest stretch of gorges in Ningxia, Shanxi and Henan provinces. Hydropower plants built in these areas are expected to produce electricity, and to control siltation in downstream dams as well. The total installed capacity of this river is estimated to be 6,092 MV [62]. Large dam projects on the Middle-Yellow River include the Guxian Dam (60 MW), the Sanmenxia Dam (400 MW) and the Xiaolangdi Dam (1,836 MW) [74]. 10. The western Hunan Province: Located on the south bank of the Yangtze River in south central China, Hunan Province has considerable hydropower potentials with abundant water supply. A series of hydropower plants with a total installed capacity of 6,613 MW are in operation, under construction or planned on the major rivers in this province. Except for producing electricity, these projects can also help to control flooding on the mainstream of the Yangtze River. 11. The southeast of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi Provinces: The total installed capacity of these areas are estimated to be 16.8 GW [62]. 12. The northeast China hydropower base: five major rivers containing the Heilong River, the Mudan River, the Nen River, the Songhua River and the Yalu River form the northeast China hydropower base, whose total installed capacity is expected to be 11 GW [62]. 13. The Nu River: Originating in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, the Nu River runs southward through Yunnan Province before living China. A massive construction plan involving 13 hydropower plants on this river was halted by Premier Jiabao Wen in 2004, allegedly to protect the environment and culture in this area. Nevertheless, the preliminary work continues [75]. In 2014, there were a total of 27 hydropower projects in operation, under construction, cancelled or proposed for the mainstream of the Nu River [64].

3.2.3 Small hydropower development in China

Definition of small hydropower varies in different regions as each country has its own standard determined by its national conditions. Hydropower plants with an installed capacity not higher than 50 MW are categorized to small hydropower (SHP) in China [76]. Notable success in hydropower development has been achieved since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, when the country’s total installed capacity was only 360 MW [77]. In general, the development of SHP could be divided into three stages [52].

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• Stage 1: 1950-1979. Due to the severe lack of electricity supply, the newly founded government set up a specialized agency in the Ministry of Water Resources to encourage the development of SHP in 1953. Then in 1958, the National Conference on Small Hydropower was held in Beijing, establishing the policy to develop rural preliminary electrification. During this period, SHP was mainly used for lighting and agricultural irrigation. In 1969, around 19,000 small hydropower plants with a total installed capacity of 729.5 MW were in operation across the country, providing electricity to over 150 million people [78]. Nevertheless, due to the lack of transformation facilities, millions of people residing in remote rural areas still had no access to the electric power [79]. • Stage 2: 1980-1999 A series of measures and policies were released during this period to further stimulate the development of SHP [80]. Subsidy accounting for 40-60% of the total investment was available for the local governments to construct small hydropower in towns and villages. The central government also provided the backbone units and other scarce materials necessary to support the construction. Upon completion, grid-connection to the main power network would be established to support the small hydropower. Under these conditions, the country’s newly installed capacity of SHP increased from 400 MV per year in the initial stage to 1120 MW per year in 1979, reaching a total installed capacity of 6.3 GW in the whole nation [81].

In 1982, Mr. Deng Xiaoping, the national leader who formulated the Reform and Open-up Policy, stated that the government should give preferential policy to SHP. In the following decades, SHP was considered as an important platform to alleviate poverty in remote regions with small population and ailing economy. During the 6th Five-Year Plan (1981-1985), the construction of 100 counties pilot projects for SHP based rural electrification was initialed, following the implementation of 200 and 300 counties in 1990 and 1996, respectively [81]. By the end of the 20th century, the country’s total installed capacity of SHP has increased to 23.5 GW, strongly promoting the economic development in rural areas [82]. • Stage 3: 2000-now Entering the 21st century, ecological economics has been placed in a more

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prominent position. The development of small hydropower is further stimulated to tackle the fuel and energy problems. By the end of 2005, the total installed capacity of SHP in the whole nation has reached 43 GW [83]. Small hydropower plants built by local governments substantially improve the economy and living conditions in rural areas.

3.3 Benefits of hydropower

• Economic benefits In spite of the high design and construction fee, hydropower plants are eco- friendly in operation and maintenance. Different to the thermal power companies, hydropower enterprises bear no costs in fossil fuels. Upon completion, a hydropower dam can serve for a long time without much maintenance fee (some ancient hydropower plants like The Dujiangyan are still in use now). Hence, hydropower enterprises enjoy a substantial profit. Besides, with a high net asset growth rate, hydropower contributes to the rapid development of renewable energy and boost the local economy in eastern and southern China. According to China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, the country’s total installed capacity is supposed to reach 300 million KW with an additional 130 million RMB investment by 2020. • Environmental benefits Thermal power industries release about 10 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere every year, accounting for 50% of the whole SO2 emission in China [84]. Construction and operation of the Three Gorges Dam helps to decrease the coal consumption by 30 million tons and the SO2 emission by 0.5 million tons [85]. Apart from controlling emission, hydropower plants also exert a positive impact on river ecosystem [86]. Hydropower projects enable the rational allocation of water sources and improves the rivers’ regulation ability by preventing the discontinuous flow and flood damage, making the rivers motive. • Social benefits Concerning the social effect, hydropower plants serve to irrigate, control flood, ship and supply water and electricity for residents’ daily life. Take the Three Gorges Dam as an example. After completion, this project functions as a flood control system and has improved the control standards significantly during the past few decades. In 2006, its freight volume reached 50 million tons, turning it

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into a golden waterway for shipping [87].

3.4 Problems of hydropower

Apart from the economic, environmental and social benefits mentioned above, there remain some severe problems including environmental changes, geologic disasters, water resources reallocation, migration settlement, submerged plantation and the immature industry system. • Negative environmental impacts and geologic disasters: Some critics argue that emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from the lake will be increased due to the slower flowing speed and deeper water caused by the emptying of reservoirs. And the self-purification of water will grow even harder. Eutrophication, soil erosion and other changes in the original living conditions can even lead to the death of aquatic animals and plants [88]. Opponents also claim that the massive application of machinery, steel and cement would aggravate the greenhouse effect, and this should be taken into account during evaluation. Out of such consideration, several plans were canceled during the vote in China’s Government Congress [89]. Apart from that, Geology state changes generated by the construction may cause landslide and improve the risk of earthquake. A safety evaluation is vital during the design and before the construction, although the earthquakes induced are often below the 5th grade and bring no harm to the lives. • Migration settlement: Over 22 million residents were forced to leave their hometowns and resettle in 31 provinces across the country due to the construction of large hydropower dams. In specific, the central government relocated 1.24 million people since 13 cities, 140 towns and 1350 villages were flooded or partially flooded by the reservoir in 2008 during the construction of the Three Gorges Dam [90]. As a multiracial country, migration of the minorities in China faces enormous difficulties because of their unique religion and customs. Compensation payment necessary to build a reservoir can account for 40% to 70% of the whole project funds [85]. Despite the compensation, the secondary poverty caused by immigration remains to be severe. The immigration problem is reckoned to be one of the key limiting factors during the hydropower development in populous China [91]. • The immature industry system: Cost of the generation equipment of hydropower is generally 40% higher than that of thermal power. Hence, most

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hydropower enterprises rely on loans for the large investment funds, making the asset-liability ratio of these companies over 70%. Reimbursement pressure for hydropower enterprises, especially those having commercial loans with high interest is considerable. Massive investment and heavy loans make the price of electricity, which is supposed to be relatively low, high during the payback period, leading to deficient competence as the cost of electricity is one of the key determinants of the development speed. • Difficulties in hydroelectric industry management: In 2009, the 45,000 small hydropower plants around the country belonged to 20,000 companies in China, with each company having different shareholders, resulting in a complex property with multiple shareholders. The concentration level of China’s water and electricity industry is low, creating difficulties in the hydroelectric industry management. In addition, the entry barrier for small hydropower is relatively low. Seizing resources from diverse channels, some companies ignore the downstream production, ecological and living requirement, building hydropower plants which violate basic construction procedures and undermine the social security. Dehydration and discontinuous flow occur due to the excessive exploitation of water resources [76]. Such phenomenon will pose serious problems to address and push up the future cost.

3.5 Suggestions and prospects

To tackle the problems mentioned above and promote a sustainable development, it is necessary to have a throughout understanding of environment changes, energy strategy and developmental requirements, and achieve the proper balance among them. Firstly, protection of the environment must be taken into account during the design and construction of the hydropower plants to maintain harmony between our human beings and the nature. Although the construction of a hydropower dam can help to improve the local environment in some aspects, its negative impacts should not be overlooked. Development of hydropower in China is supposed to be based on the real environmental capability and zone programming.

Secondary, the national regulations and policies on resettlements should be improved to address both the existing and potential problems caused by immigration. Experiences in reservoir resettlements from other countries can be taken as useful references. For instance, Chinese Ministry of Water Resources once organized an investigation team

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and visited Thailand to carry out some case studies. Other possible solutions containing increasing the compensation standard and providing preferential environment to encourage business and create new jobs. Besides, national publicity about the basic knowledge of hydropower and its impacts is crucial. A supportive social atmosphere can be created when people around the country have a clear understanding of the recent hydropower development strategies, achievements and the remaining problems.

Thirdly, small hydropower plants with low initial investment, appropriate scale, no immigration, mature technology and short construction period, play an important part in the hydropower development in China. Projects based on local resources and subject to the national regulations should be encouraged to improve the rural ecological environment and energy supply. Except for the large dams, construction of small hydropower stations is also vital to maintain the healthy development of hydroelectric industry in China. Finally, market planning and macro control can help to provide a healthy investment and operation environment. Apart from that, innovations in hydropower technology and international cooperation are also crucial to enhance the efficiency in the initial investment and management [92].

4. Wind energy

Wind power, which enjoys a greater development potential and shorter construction period than hydropower, high security than nuclear power, and lower cost than solar power, plays a vital part in the renewable energy development in China [93]. In 2016, with a new capacity of 23,370 MW adding to the country’s electricity grid and its total installations reaching 168,732 MW, China had led the global wind market for the 8th consecutive year. Compared with 2015, the annual electric power generated from wind power in 2016 grew 30% to 241 TWh, accounting for 4% of the national electricity supply.

Due to the reductions in impending feed-in tariff and the slackening growth in electricity demand, China’s annual installations in 2016 dropped 24% from 30 GW in 2015. And the existing grid seems incapable of handling the new additional wind capacity volume. Nevertheless, the wind market in China is expected to rally again in the near future. After years of steady expansion, wind power industry grows up with improving industrialization condition, cutting the cost close to that of conventional energy. Relying on the abundant wind resources across the country, whose exploitable

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and reserves capacity rank first globally, wind power industry shows considerable potential for large-scale and commercial development [94].

In the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), the national government stressed the urgency to control the development of fossil energy while promoting renewables. In specific, coal consumption is expected to be decreased from 65% in 2015 to below 55% in 2020, while the share of non-fossil energy resources is supposed to increase 3% to 15% of the total energy consumption. According to this plan, the total renewable electricity installations will grow up from 520 GW to 770 GW by 2020, with wind power reaching at least 210 GW. Then the electricity generated by wind power will grow to 420 TWh, contributing to 6% of the country’s total power generation.

4.1 Wind power resources distribution

Located on the west coast of Pacific Ocean, China enjoys long monsoon periods. Half of eastern China is influenced by the south-east monsoon, and the Northern provinces are affected by the winter monsoon 6 months annually. It is reported that 50% area of the whole nation shows marginal wind potential (with wind speed over 6m/s in 350 to 1500 hours per year), 18% shows moderate wind potential (with wind speed over 6m/s in 1500 to 2200 hours per year), and 8% shows high wind potential (with wind speed over 6m/s in more than 2200 hours annually) [95]. The average wind power density in China is predicted to be 100W/m2 and the wind resources are mainly distributed in 3 regions: the “three norths” region, the southeast coastal region and the local inland region (see Figure 9) [96]. • The “three norths” region: The “three norths” region refers to the north, northwest and northeast parts of China. In specific, this region consists of 10 provinces including Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Tibet and Xinjiang. Among these provinces, Tibet has the most considerable wind resources, with wind power density reaching 200-300 W/m2 and a exploitable capacity of 200 million kW0 [95]. The no destructive wind speed, flat terrain and convenient transportation make this region an ideal place for the construction of large-scale wind power base. Nevertheless, dust storms and low temperatures can pose serious problems for the construction and operation of these wind power projects. It is necessary to develop an overall plan, coming up with solutions to such problems and helping to coordinate with the existing grid and improve the networking conditions.

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• The southeast coastal region: Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong, Zhejiang and other provinces form the southeast coastal region with the wind power density higher than 200W/m2 in 7000-8000 hours per year. Existing of the narrow area between the mainland and Taiwan Strait helps to increase the speed of wind affecting this region. Besides, typhoons in summer and autumn and the cold air in winter and spring are major sources of the rich wind power along the coast and islands. • The local region of inland: Wind power sources in the local region of inland China is also abundant due to the impacts of terrain and lakes. Provinces like Chongqing, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Yunnan have mountains, valleys and lakes which have rich wind power resources. And there are other inland provinces providing ideal places for the construction of small- scale wind power base. However, the rapid growth of wind power in China is not consistent with economic development. Over 28% of the cumulative installed capacity of wind energy are concentrated in the Inner Mongolia, Gansu Province which account for only 6.78% of total electricity consumption in China, while Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong province in the southeast China with a more developed economy and a highly concentrated population have only 4.7% of the cumulative installed capacity of wind energy, but account for 20.5% of total electricity consumption.

Except for the onshore wind power, China enjoys rich offshore wind resources with high exploitable capacity. In general, the speed of wind above the sea is 20% faster than that in the plains along the coast. With limited calm period, the fast and smooth wind offshore enables the effective working of wind turbine and the successive generation of wind power. The offshore wind farm technology in China matures a lot after years of development. In 2016, China passed Denmark and became the third largest offshore market globally. Offshore wind is considered to be one of the key sustainable energy sources in future.

4.2 Development of wind power

China began the construction of wind turbine and wind power plant in 1980s. And 2003 witnessed the dramatic growth in wind energy commercialization driven by the annual wind power bidding launched by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) [97]. Annual installed wind power capacity keeps increasing enormously

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during the following years (see Figure 10) [98].

In 2011, the total installed wind power capacity in wind farms located in 30 provinces and autonomous regions in China reached 63 GW, and there were 9 provinces with the capacity installed exceeding 2 GW [99]. Based on the sufficient wind power resources available, Inner Mongolia with its cumulative installed capacity increasing to 18.62 GW by the end of 2012, continues to lead the development of wind power in China, followed by the Hebei and Gansu provinces with an installed capacity of 7.98 and 6.48 GW respectively [100]. Regions recognized as the 10 GW-scale wind power bases in China include the Gansu Province, East Inner Mongolia, West Inner Mongolia, Hebei Province, Xinjiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Jilin Province and Shandong Province. Table 2 shows the construction plans in these bases [93]. The distribution of installed capacity of wind power can be seen from Figure 11. A more detailed information of the wind power plant installations within each region is detailed below.

 Gansu Province Gansu Province became China’s first 10 GW-scale wind power base after the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) proposed the plan to establish a 10 GW-scale base with an associated 750 KV grid project in city Jiuquan [101]. In September 2010, installation of Phase I with a capacity of 5.16 GW was completed. And the 750 KV grid project was put into operation, transmitting electricity generated to Eastern Provinces with high electric energy demand. In 2013, the total installed capacity of Jiuquan base grew to 15.79 GW after the completion of Phase II construction. It is estimated that the electric energy produced by the wind power plant was 5.7×109 kWh in the first half of 2013 with an annual growth rate over 23% [102].

• East Inner Mongolia The 10 GW-scale wind power base in East Inner Mongolia consists of several 1 GW- scale bases like Bayannur, Chifeng, Tongliao, Ulanqab and Xiligol. Benefiting from the renewable energy regulations and the support from the State Grid Corporation, the total installed capacity of the 70 grid connected wind farms in this region increased to 7 GW in 2012, generating energy up to 1×1010 kWh and accounting for 13.5% of the energy consumed in the East Inner Mongolia Grid [103].

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• West Inner Mongolia In 2009, China built a wind farm with a capacity of 50MW (2MW x 25 units), producing electricity around 120GWh per year, which would reduce CO2 emissions by 140,000 tons per year. In 2011, the wind farms established in this area almost realized continuous operation during daytime, improving the %age of electric energy generated by wind power plant within the whole electricity network from 2.4% in 2008 to 13.2% in 2012. The total installed capacity reached 10.04 GW in 2013, with the electricity generated in the first half of this year reaching 1.26×1011 kWh and supplying 13.6% of the total energy consumption in the local area [105]. • Hebei Province The northwest regions in Hebei Province like Cangzhou, Chengdu, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan and Zhangjiakou, which are located next to Inner Mongolia have adequate wind resources. In 2007, the first large-scale wind power demonstration base was established in the Bashang region in Zhangjiakou. The total installed capacity in Zhangjiakou reached 5.8 GW by the end of August in 2013, among which 5.36 GW had been connected to the grid [106]. Hebei has been accelerating the construction of wind power plants in Cangzhou, Chengdu, Qinhuangdao and Tangshan since 2009, when it was identified as one of China’s 1 GW-scale wind power bases. The cumulative installed capacity in Hebei is expected to reach 10 GW by 2020 [36]. • Xinjiang Province National Energy Administration (NEA) approved the plan of establishing the 10 GW- scale wind power bases with an associated Northwest Grid connecting mode of 35-220- 750 KV in Hami, Xinjiang Province in 2008 [106]. Launched in March 2012, the Phase I project (2 GW) introduced the 2.5 and 3 MW generators for the first time [107]. Completion of the 750 KV project terminated the isolated-grid operation of Xinjiang Grid and enabled the transmission of generated power to the East [108]. The total installed capacity of grid-connected wind power grew to 3.09 GW in July 2013 [106]. The Phase II project (6.0 GW) was approved and under construction. Once completed, the annual energy transmission is expected to reach 1.5×1010 kWh [109]. • Jiangsu Province Located in the Eastern coast, Jiangsu is one of the most developed provinces in China with a heavy energy demand. The offshore wind resources with exploitable energy density is expected to play a crucial part in satisfying the increasing electricity demand in the local area [110]. Wind power farms are under construction, in operation or planned in the coastal parts of Lianyungang, Nantong and Yancheng. The total installed

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capacity increased to 2.28 GW in July 2013. Power produced from January to Jury in 2013 was estimated to be 2.8×105 kWh with an annual growth of 42.64% [110]. • Jilin Province After the first large scale wind power base was constructed in Tongyu, Jilin Province, 29 wind farms had been established and connected to the grid with a cumulative installed capacity of 3.3 GW in 2012, providing an annual energy generation of 4.39×1010 kWh and supplying for 7.2% of the total electricity consumption in the local area [106, 111]. • Shandong Province After recognized as the eighth 10 GW-scale wind power base in 2011, Shandong Province had established 57 grid-connected wind farms in Dongying, Weihai and Yantai near the coastline with a total installed capacity of 3.53 GW by the end of 2012 [112]. In addition to the 8 large-scale wind power bases listed above, several other provinces including Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Ningxia also show exploitable potential for the further development of wind power in China [99].

5. Solar energy

Sunlight energy can be converted into electricity by indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP), directly using solar photovoltaics (PV), or a combination. The former applies tracking systems with mirrors or lenses to focus a large area of light to a small beam, while the latter depends on the photovoltaic effect to generate an electric current.

Early 2000s witnessed the rapid development of solar PV technology in China. During the mid-1990s, the country’s producing capacity of PV module was only 5 MW, within which only 1.4 MW met the modern international standards. In 2012, China shared half of the total installed capacity of solar PV globally. Domestic solar PV companies were encouraged to install solar power with connections to the national grid. According to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the installed capacity of solar PV was expected to reach 10 GW by 2015 and 50 GW by 2020. After narrowly surpassed Germany in 2015, China became the largest photovoltaic power producer worldwide. The country’s total solar PV capacity reached 77.4 GW in 2016 (with an additional capacity of 34.5GW) and increased to 125.79 GW in 2017 [2]. Large-scale projections with massive

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investment have been planned, under construction or in operation in the western provinces like Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai and Xinjiang with the richest solar radiations in China [3].

5.1 Distribution of solar energy resources

Located in the northern hemisphere with spans of east-west and north-south both longer than 5,000 km, China enjoys abundant solar energy resources due to its unique geographical characteristics. According to the data collected by the 700 meteorological stations around the country, the annual solar radiation number across the country is between 3.3 × 10 to 8.4 × 10 KJ/m2 with a mean value of 5.9 × 10 KJ/m2, making the total solar6 energy resources6 per year equivalent to 1.7 trillion6 tons of standard coal [4]. A more detailed distribution of solar energy resources in China has been shown in Figure 12 and

Table 3. Solar radiation level in different regions varies widely. Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the highest radiation zone of solar energy with the annual radiation number between 6680 ~ 8400 MJ/m2 and the sunshine hours over 3200 hours per year. The annual total solar radiation amount in western provinces is obviously larger than that of eastern provinces. Meanwhile, most of the northern provinces enjoy higher-level solar radiation compared with the southern regions. Besides,

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Table 3 also shows that there are over 67% of the whole nation with sunshine hours more than 2200 hours per year and the annual solar radiation number above 5000 MJ/m2 [5]. Abundant solar resources in the northern and northwest part of China provide enormous potential for the utilization and development of solar energy. It is suggested that if 1% of the country’s annual total solar radiation is transformed into electricity, it will be able to satisfy the whole nation’s demand of energy [6].

5.2 Solar energy development

Chinese ancestors exploited the sunlight to isolate the salt, corn and clothing thousands of years ago. In Song dynasty (about 1000 years ago), coppery concave mirror was developed to make fire. Practical application of solar PV initiated in China in 1971. Then during the following decades, both direct and indirect application of solar energy developed significantly. Common utilizations include solar water heater, road lighting system, solar refrigeration, PV generation system, water pumping, solar heating buildings and air conditioners. These utilizations can be divided into two categories: the application of solar heat and the PV generation electricity. Direct utilization of the solar heat contains the solar energy house/greenhouse and solar energy hearth, while the indirect utilization includes solar energy desiccation (SED), solar energy refrigeration of industry (SER), solar energy calefaction of industry (SEC) and solar energy heat generate electricity (SEHGE) based on solar energy collect heater. PV generation electricity refers to the producing of electricity via solar cells. This technology has been widely used in wireless communications, cathode protection, space domain, portable power supply and PV water pumping and lighting.

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5.2.1 Solar photovoltaics (PV)

China’s solar PV industry began in the 1980s and started to accelerate in 2004. In no more than a decade, the country went through the industrialization process of the solar PV industry and established the global dominance. Major development of the Chinese solar PV innovation system can be divided into 5 periods [8]. • The initial period In 1958, the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) manufactured the very first piece of silicon single crystal, initiating the development of solar PV in China. In 1968, an institute in Tianjin produced the first solar cells designed for China’s space satellites, Practice I. Then during the 1970s, several companies operated by the central government continued to produce solar cells for satellites [9]. Meanwhile, solar PV was used to supply energy for the beacon light in airport, microwave relay stations, rural broadcasting stations, water pumps and the protection of petroleum pipelines [10].

• 1985 ~ 1996: the pioneering period During the years from 1979 to 1992, PV companies and research institutes run by the central government imported turn-key producing equipment and manufacturing lines abroad [11]. In 1995, influenced by the global guidance in low carbon solutions, the National Scientific and Technological Commission released the “New Energy and Renewable Energy Development Outline for China (1996 ~ 2010)” to help seek the balance between the economic development and the protection of environment [12]. This policy emphasized the importance of developing solar PV modules and machinery in China. In addition, privately-owned enterprises were officially permitted to design and produce solar PV, contributing to the expansion of the domestic solar PV industry.

• 1997 ~ 2003: economic reform and the strategies of privately-owned companies Adopted in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was aiming at reducing the emission of greenhouse gas and promoting the development and application of renewable energy worldwide. Influenced by this treaty, governmental projects of solar PV application were launched in the EU, USA, Japan, etc. Inspired by the growing foreign market, Jifan Gao, a Chinese entrepreneur established one of the first privately-owned sola PV companies Trina Solar in 1999. This company managed to construct the first solar PV powered building in China. Industrialization of solar PV was given urgent priority after the central government highlighted the development of renewable energy in China in

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the “Guide to High-tech Industrialization: Key Fields of Current Priority”.

In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), providing open market for the domestic solar PV companies and subsequently stimulating the PV industry. National research programs for solar PV were established, creating numerous patents and research articles. Nevertheless, these knowledge-oriented research programs failed to boost the commercial manufacture of PV products in China because of the gap between the academic study and industrial application. Cooperation with foreign companies in the application of solar PV in China increased in 2002, bringing technological and capital support to the Chinese market [13].

• 2004 ~ 2008: rapid development of the solar PV industry In 2004, the previous version of Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) was amended, giving priority to electricity produced from renewable energy resources [14]. Policies formulated in other European countries also helped to expand the market for solar PV, facilitating the rapid development of solar PV industry in China. Many domestic companies began to import the key technology and manufacturing lines abroad to produce solar grade polycrystalline silicon and PV cells [15]. In 2005, China launched the “Renewable Energy Act”, demanding full purchase and compulsory grid connection of renewable energy [16]. This policy helped solar PV companies in obtaining financial and other support from their local governments. Apart from that, Chinese solar PV industry started to attract international investment after Suntech Power, a solar PV firm in China went public in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In 2006, three documentations: the “Regulation of Renewable Energy Generation”, the “Special Renewable Energy Fund” and the “Renewable Energy Price and Cost-Sharing Management” were published, providing financial incentives to the solar PV companies and stimulating the national market [8].

• 2009 to present: initial formation of a domestic solar PV market Suffered from the global financial crisis and the intense competition on the solar PV industry, the price of solar PV began to drop, making it far more difficult for solar PV producers to keep profitable. Hence, Chinese entrepreneurs tried their best to persuade the central government to develop a domestic market, initiating the formation of domestic solar PV market in China. Compared with the export market, this domestic

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market exerted a limited impact on the manufacture of solar PV in China. Meanwhile, the growth rate of solar PV export declined due to the international trade litigations, forcing the Chinese solar PV firms to head in different directions. Although the PV cell and module companies still received financial support from both the local and central government, manufacture of the polycrystalline silicon was strictly restricted by the Chinese government [17]. Apart from that, some Chinese PV producers started to export their self-designed manufacturing equipment to other developing regions like Africa, South-East Asia and South America, starting the transformation of domestic solar PV producing technology [18]. The domestic solar PV market in China is still at its infancy stage now and will mature gradually with the rise of the Chines solar PV innovation system and the external stimulation of the global market.

5.2.2 Concentrating solar power (CSP)

Concentrating solar power (CSP), which is also called concentrating solar thermal power, uses lenses or mirrors with sun-following systems to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a small area to transmit the light into heat. The heat generated can be used to power a thermochemical reaction, or be absorbed by the heat engine (for example, a steam turbine) and converted into electricity by the electric power generator connected to the system [19-21]. The price of CSP systems is often higher when compared with that of solar PV panels, which have developed rapidly with falling prices and lower operating costs in recent years. Nevertheless, CSP systems offer some special advantages over solar PV technology. For instance, some CSP technologies are designed to store solar energy in the form of molten salts, enabling the system to produce electricity after sunset and thus making the electric power partially dispatchable. In addition, the modularity and flexibility of CSP system enables it to meet the needs of power plants with both large and small utility scales [22]. Besides, the construction, operation and maintenance of CSP systems are relatively simple as traditional materials and technologies can be applied and the new system has great potential for further improvements [23]. On the global scale, the CSP market records a growing market share owing to the supportive government policies and incentives to promote clean energy. Visiongain reported that the concentrated solar power (CSP) market reaches $37.3bn in 2019 [113]. The parabolic trough segment dominates the concentrated solar power (CSP) market during the analysis period between 2019 and 2029. Unlike solar PV, the development of CSP in China is limited. In 2015, the total installed capacity of CSP worldwide reached 4940 MW, of which China only accounted for about

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1% [24]. Given the rich solar radiation resources available and the success in solar PV industries, China shows an immense potential for the future development of CSP technologies. The rapid development of CSP in China was demonstrated by three CSP projects with the total capacity of 200MW completed and connected to the grid in 2018. (1) CGN Delingha 50MW Parabolic Trough CSP project (2) Shouhang Dunhuang 100MW Molten Salt Tower CSP project (3) SUPCON Delingha 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP project

In September 2019, the Gonghe 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP Project and Luneng Haixi 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP Project started operation and three months later, CPECC Hami 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP Project connected to the grid. The Hami project, equipped with 13 hours' molten salt solar thermal storage system is located in Xinjiang Province, with the highest latitude - 43°North.

Moreover, Australia researchers also proposed small-scale dispatchable CSP technology equipped with spray-assisted dry cooling technology. [114, 115] Another novelty in this advanced technology is the adoption of using supercritical carbon dioxide as working fluid, which utilizes high electricity generation efficiency of Brayton power cycles. China is also considering using this new technology for clean electricity production in rural and remote areas in western China.

5.2.2.1 Concentrating solar power (CSP) systems and comparisons

Table 4 shows three major technology options for CSP and their parameters [23-25].

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Among the common types of CSP systems, the most popular one is parabolic trough system using a steam turbine driven by solar-heated high-temperature steam to convert solar energy into electric power. Common heat transfer and storage medium used in parabolic trough systems include salt and steam. And the vacuum tube receiver plays a crucial part in the entire system [20]. The Beijing Day Rising Vacuum Technology Development Company, a Chinese firm has successfully designed and manufactured a glass-mental transition seal structure of vacuum tubes to improve the thermal cycle efficiency.

Power tower system applies large heliostat mirrors to focus solar reflections into a receiver atop the tower. Absorbing the concentrated solar energy, working fluids in the receiver can be evaporated to steam and then be used to drive the conventional turbine. High concentration level can be achieved, and this system can be established in a large scale. In practical application, a thermal storage unit or a fossil back-up burner can be connected to the system to keep constant steam parameters under insufficient solar radiation [26]. A dish stirling (also called dish engine system) relies on a stand-alone parabolic reflector to focus solar radiation to a receiver fixed at the reflector’s focal point. Then the heated working fluid within the receiver will be used by a stirling engine to produce power [27]. Natural gas can be applied for a hybrid operation.

In summary, these three major CSP systems cover a wide range of costs, scales, capabilities and applications, with each having its own benefits and shortages. The dish stirling system is suitable for the development of decentralized power generation plants in China regarding its small capacity and modular design, and the immense potential for cutting the capital costs greatly (expected to be around 57%) in the not too distant future. Power tower and parabolic trough, the two centralized systems with enormous output potential, thermal storage and hybridization capabilities, can be applied to address China’s needs for large-scale power generation.

However, opinions of the choice between parabolic trough and power tower differ in China. Some researches indicate that the power tower system with greater conversion efficiency and lower costs is a better choice for the development of CSP [28]. Besides, although the parabolic trough system has commercially proven experience (investments, efficiency, operation and returns), best land-use factor and lowest material demand, it suffers from serious shortages including the limitation of operation temperature (400 ℃) and the potential interruption caused by a single point of breakdown of the long tubing

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through the parabolic though collectors. Nevertheless, these disadvantages can be overcome with technical innovations like: (1) promoting the conversion efficiency of solar energy with enhanced mirrors and tracking systems; (2) improving the heat transfer technology to transcend the temperature limitations and maximizing the conversion efficiency of solar to electric power; (3) reducing the operation and maintenance expenses by advancing the mirror cleaning technology; (4) improving the manufacturing and implementation efficiency to control the capital costs [29]. With breakthroughs in these research fields, the parabolic trough system has drawn increasing attention and investments in Algeria, Egypt, Europe, India, Iran, the US, Morocco and Mexico [30]. Therefore, it seems reasonable for China to encourage the development of parabolic trough system based on the commercially mature technology and explore the large-scale application of power tower system for future CSP advancement.

5.2.2.2 Potential of concentrating solar power in China The potential of CSP application in China is determined by the relationship between the country’s major characteristics and the economic and technical parameters required for CSP systems. To be specific, these factors include the geographic features, grid infrastructure, economic policy, electric demand and transmission, etc (see Table 5).

(1) Solar energy resources in China Limited by the nature of CSP technology, only direct normal insolation (DNI) can be applied to drive the system, restricting areas suitable for CSP installation to regions with elevated levels of annual DNI, little cloud cover and low levels of atmospheric particulates and moisture. Figure 13 shows the DNI resources in China [24]. Although the annual total solar radiation amount exceeds 5.02 × 10 KWh m in over 67% of the country’s land surface areas [31], the value of DNI sources6 is lower2 than 2 kWh/m2 ⁄ per day in most of the central and eastern regions. According to the assumption that the economic exploitation of CST requires a minimum DNI value of 5kWh/m2 per day or 1800 kWh/m2 per year, areas including the central part of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Tibet Autonomous Region, part of Qinghai Province, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the northwestern part of Sichuan Province and the western part of Gansu Province are suitable candidates for CST plants [25]. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau with a DNI value of greater than 9 kWh/m2 per day shows considerable potential for CSP development.

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(2) Land assessment Apart from the DNI resources, the land for CSP plants are supposed to have low diversity of biological species and limited value for residential and agricultural applications, making desert regions the most suitable land for CSP implementation. It is estimated that the desert accounts for 27.3% of China’s territory (around 2.63 million km2), the majority of which is in the north and northwest regions with high-quality direct solar insolation resources. Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Qinghai with approximately 987, 900 km2 of desert and the annual DNI value exceeding 1800 kWh/m2 in most regions [25], appear to be promising potential lands for SCP development.

Other factors need to be considered include wind conditions, geology, land topography and soli quality. Structural design of the collectors, which accounts for 40% of the solar field expenses, is closely dependent upon the wind intensities. A consideration of wind force is thus necessary to improve the design and operation of the CSP plants. For CSP construction, lands with slope less than 3 are reckoned to be suitable, and those with slope less than 1 the most economical [23]. To optimize the decision, a comprehensive assessment of seismic history, flood potential, stability of soil and possible obstructions of the sun is also crucial to enhance the operational effectiveness of mirror reflectors.

(3) Water assessment Within a CSP plant, water is primarily used to cool the power cycle, replenish the steam cycle with working fluid, condensate and clean the mirror reflectors to maintain the solar field. In general, the water requirement for CSP systems ranges from 3 to 3.5 m3/kWh. Nearly 95% of the water is used for tower cooling and the other 5% for working fluid and mirror washing [32]. As described above, lands having high-quality DNI resources are often deserts without easy access to water. The expense of transporting water to the plant exerts a strong impact on the cost effectiveness of the CSP systems since cooling through water evaporation remains to be the most efficient cooling technology available [33]. Hence, lands for CSP instructions should have an inexpensive access to water resources. Nevertheless, if the desert region has underground or saline water, a hybrid dual-purpose plant using solar energy to remove salinity and generate electricity can be introduced to provide water for the system and improve the economic viability of the plant.

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(4) Power grid and transmission assessment In addition to the geographic assessment, access to existing electric power transmission lines also plays a big part in the design and construction of the CSP plant. Expense of transmission lines is generally vast, making the distance between the a CSP plant to a transmission power grid a crucial factor in the decision. Line costs differ as the line capacity, voltage and length vary. Other factors relevant to the final cost include the characteristics of the construction site, and the need for transformers and substations. Tibet and Xinjiang, regions with the most enormous potential for CSP development, however, remain unconnected to China’s power grid which extends mainly to the cities and villages in the eastern regions. Interconnection between the existing grids is also limited. Developing the CSP plants in the western regions to meet the local demand for electricity and transmit the excess energy to the east, establishing the interconnection between Tibet, Xinjiang and other regions across the country is a first prerequisite.

5.2.2.3 Solar thermal heating and cooling Currently, the solar thermal applications in China primarily concentrate on the medium and low temperature thermal implementations like solar water heater, solar building, solar cooling and air conditioning and solar dryers [34].

(1) Solar water heating systems Solar water heaters are now one of the most widely used solar thermal applications in China, with an average increase of about 30% per year since 1980s [34]. Solar water heaters dominating the domestic market can be divided into three categories: the all- glass, flat-plate and batch vacuum tube. After establishing 5 bases for solar thermal heaters producing in Beijing, Haining, Ludong, Yangzhou and Taian, China has already become the world’s largest producer and user of solar water heaters. In Kuming, Yunnan Province with abundant solar radiation, nearly all the residential houses are equipped with solar water heaters for daily use.

Five million square meters of solar water collectors were brought into operation with an investment of 1.2 billion dollars in 2010 [35], following policies and regulations to improve the solar water heating technology in China. After the technical code for solar water heating system of residential buildings came into force in 2006 [36], the central

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government released the national standard of solar water heating industry in 2011, providing the energy efficiency grades for domestic solar water heating products. Solar water heaters with the highest energy efficiency is categorized as the products of level 1. Solar heaters allowed to enter the market need to satisfy the demand of level 3.

(2) Solar building China began the development of solar building integration technology in the 1970s. At preliminary stages, the major applications were the passive solar greenhouses for flower cultivation and agricultural production, especially in the northwestern provinces. It is estimated that energy consumption in residential buildings accounts for up to 30% of the country’s total energy consumption [37]. The %age keeps increasing rapidly due to the improving standard of living conditions, providing a potential market for the solar passive houses. Based on the current integrated solar water heating technology combing solar heating with air pump heating systems, a recent renovation is to rebuild the house roofs from flat to incline, providing ideal space for the installation of roof-integrated solar collectors [38]. Taking the Beijing Olympic City as an example, solar heaters were introduced to make the buildings more environmental-friendly, within which up to 90% of the hot water supply was produced via solar heating systems [39].

(3) Solar cooling and air conditioning Solar cooling technology uses solar power to fulfill the needs of cooling caused by solar radiation. Initiating the study of solar cooling in the 1970s, China has developed a series of solar absorption systems over the last few decades. For instance, a large-scale solar absorption refrigeration and hot water hybrid plant has been constructed and in operation in Shandong Province [34]. Other researches focusing on solar cooling systems include solar solid absorption refrigeration plant using air for heat conduction, introducing solar refrigeration technology to store energy, solar ejector refrigeration system, and combing gas with sunlight to drive the cooling systems [40].

(4) Solar dryers Except for the solar water heaters and solar absorption refrigeration, another solar system popular in China is solar dryer. It is reported that more than 100 sets of solar dryers are in operation across the country, serving for the drying of medical herbs and agricultural products like vegetables, grain and meat [34].

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5.3 Challenges of solar energy development in China

The expansion of solar energy industry is rapid in China, but it also needs to break through the technology, financial, market and policy barriers to pursue a sustainable development. Firstly, weather conditions exert a major impact on the operation of solar energy plants, which work efficiently only when it is sunny, making solar energy unreliable in regions without sustainable weather conditions. Air pollution in the installation regions can also impair the effectiveness of the solar systems [41]. Components within the system like absorption devices, converters and batteries need further improvements to achieve steady operation and high efficiency. Besides, electric power generated by the solar PV plants in northwest regions is enormous, but the lack of planning for PV power generation make the locality fail to absorb the power produced and thus lead to the “power abandonment” phenomenon. To set up the power distribution network, unified coordination with connections to the power grid need to be established to transmit electricity generated effectively, while the relevant regulations of high proportion distributed PV systems need to be introduced and enforced.

Secondary, the initial investment of solar power plants is generally huge. Compared with traditional energy resources, the cost of solar energy is relatively high under current market conditions. Take solar PV as an example, the price of electricity produced by solar PV panels is more than 5 RMB a degree, far higher than its market price. Therefore, financial support from the government is crucial to the sustainable development of solar energy in China. Expect for the technology advances, official investment also plays a decisive role in the establishment of the power transmission network.

Thirdly, international trade barriers caused by trade protectionism greatly restrict the export of China’s solar PV products. Typically, as an export-oriented industry, the domestic solar PV market is still small and under development currently. Facing the deterioration of the foreign market, expansion of the domestic market becomes urgent and critical to the future development of solar PV industry. Nevertheless, the conventional opinion towards the solar PV in China is that the costs are too high. A throughout overview of the environment, resources and ecology key to the determination of official compensation to the solar PV industry is still unavailable. Expect for the existing feed-in-tariff of distributed solar PV industry, other issues

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including unclear technical standards, unformulated feed-in tariff policies and limited government subsidies remain to be barriers against the mature of the domestic market.

Finally, hortative policies released by the central government lead to limited application of solar energy in most provinces across the country. On the one hand, natural resources in different provinces differ. For the western and northern provinces abundant in fossil resources, local governments always have little interest in the exploitation of renewable energy. For the eastern and southern provinces without sustainable solar radiation, local governments may prefer to encourage the development of wind and tide energy. On the other hand, the existing policies relevant to the solar energy mainly focus on the technological innovation of the solar systems, paying little attention to the terminal applications and other economic and environmental issues essential to the implementation of solar energy plants.

5.4 Future prospect of solar technology in China

Regarding its advantages on availability, accessibility, efficiency, cost and capacity over other types of renewable energy resources, solar energy is one of the best options to satisfy the future energy demand in China [117]. With the official support, technological innovation and domestic market expansion, price of electric power generated by the solar energy systems is expected to decrease rapidly in the foresee future, stimulating the development of solar energy industry in China. To achieve this goal, financial and policy support from both the central and local government is essential. Academic researches aimed at improving the industry application of solar energy should be encouraged to fill the gap between knowledge-oriented programs and practical operations. Both the technical breakthrough and massive investment are necessary for the transmission of electricity generated by the solar energy plants located at the western and northern regions with rich solar radiation resources but no access to the existing power grid.

In terms of current applications, solar water heater has been widely used in enormous residential houses around the whole nation, making China a leader in the production and utilization of solar water heater worldwide. Millions of farms located in the rural areas have introduced solar greenhouses to fertilize the agricultural production. Solar PV panels are integrated with the lighting systems to provide road lighting in cities and solar water pumps are used to generate electricity in remote villages. With the abundant

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solar energy resources available and the increasing purchasing power of citizens, solar energy products based on advanced technology is expected to have a considerable potential in future China.

6. Bioenergy

Listed in the Long-term National Economic and Social Development Strategy, development of bioenergy is one of the priorities of the renewable energy plan in China [118]. According to the strategy designed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), renewable energy is expected to account for 15% of the total energy capacity in China by the end of 2020, while the country’s biomass-based energy is planned to reach 30 GW, contributing to 15% of the total renewable energy consumption [119]. With the introduction of bioenergy, the annual emission of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide is estimated to be reduced by 33 and 2.4 million metric tons respectively [120]. Generally, development of bioenergy focuses mainly on 4 areas: (1) using bio-waste to generate biogas (e.g. methane production in rural areas), (2) straw- fired heat and power generation, (3) biomass solidification and gasification based on agricultural residues, and (4) biomass-to-liquid fuel (e.g. ethanol and biodiesel),

In 2000, five plants were set up to generate ethanol by starch in China. The total bioethanol generation capacity was around 0.92 million metric tons in 2005, which increased to 1.50 million metric tons in 2007 and reached 1.94 million metric tons in the following year [121]. Up to four fifth of the bioethanol was generated from corn, pushing up the price of corn rapidly and leading to the grain shortage in some provinces. To control the negative influences, the original facilities were shut up by the central government, transforming the starch-based ethanol generation to non-grain based (e.g. corn stover-based) biofuel production [119]. The annual consumption of gasoline in China was 60 million metric tons in 2008, which could be supplied through establishing an industry network involving 600 plants with each plant generating 100,000 metric tons of cellulosic ethanol annually or involving 1,000 plants with each generating 60,000 metric tons every year [122]. In the 12th Five-year plan (2011~2015), the central government planned to realize the commercialization of the cellulosic ethanol plant with an annual generation capacity of 50,000 to 100,000 metric tons. Without a sound policy framework and an effective market mechanism, development of bioenergy industry in China is still at the opening stage [123]. Facing the energy security issue (i.e. China’s ever-growing oil consumption relies largely on imports with high costs), bioenergy technology developed to address the problem is criticized for undermining

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the country’s food security.

6.1 Fuel ethanol industry

China began the fuel ethanol generation in the mid-1990s, during which the industry was encouraged to transform the stale wheat, corn and other grains into fuel ethanol. Entering the 21st century, the industry grows up steadily, establishing the furl ethanol market structure in 2004. Generating about 1 million tons of fuel ethanol annually, China became the world’s third largest fuel ethanol producer in 2005, ranking after Brazil and the US. Due to the gradual depletion of stale grain and a rise in corn price, official regulation was issued to stop the starch-based ethanol production and only non- food crops were permitted to be used as the raw material in fuel ethanol production.

6.2 Biodiesel industry

With advanced distribution, selection, cultivation and processing technology, China’s biodiesel industry has made impressive achievements after years of rapid development. The country’s biodiesel generation projects are now carried out mainly in the private organizations, contributing to the further development of biodiesel in China. According to the data provided by NDRC, the country’s total annul biodiesel generation was 0.5 million tons in 2012, which was relatively small globally. The production capacity was estimated to be 2.6 million tons in 2012, excluding the generation capacity of small businesses. With national policies released to stimulate the biodiesel industry, the annual production is expected to reach 12 million tons by the end of 2020.

6.3 Biogas industry

Started in the 1970s, China’s biogas industry in now under rapid development, with an annual production of 17 million m3 in 2012, accounting for 15.8% of the total natural gas generation (107.7 m3) [123]. It was estimated that the country’s total biogas resources were around 274 million m3 in 2013 (i.e. 120 billion m3 of organic waste resources and 154 billion m3 of agricultural resources), which was equal to 27.4% of the world’s total biogas resources. With efficient biogas technology, however, China’s medium-scale biogas plants started late. Comparing with developed countries, continuous innovations are necessary to fill the wide gap in the aspect of methane fermentation technique using different materials, technology and facilities required for

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large-scale biogas plants, the

6.4 Biomass power industry

Biomass resources have the potential for energy production and most of them come from agriculture, industries and forestry waste, municipal solid waste as well as animal manure and sewage. The largest contributor is the agricultural residues, which are derived from agriculture harvesting such as maize, rice and cotton stalks, wheat straw and husks. As the by-products of food production systems, these residues can be used for sustainable sources of biomass without threatening food security.

Theoretically, China has abundant biomass energy, approximately 5 billion tons coal equivalent, but only 5 % of its total biomass potential has been utilized[124]. In 2007, the Chinese Government made an ambitious plan to build new biomass power stations to increase the capacity to 30,000 MW by 2020. The majority of biomass capacity lies in Eastern China, as are shown in Figure 14 and Table 6. Simply put, the coastal Shandong province accounts for 14 % of the total resources. Among all these biomass projects, Jiangsu province looks outstanding in terms of total capacity of the power plants including those on the plan. The first biomass power plant was constructed in Shandong province and commissioned in December 2006. The annual consumption of this plant is 150,000 ~ 200,000 ton of biomass and its capacity is 25 MW. In southern China, fifty biomass power stations were built in Hunan, Jiangsu, Hubei, Fujian, Shanxi, Jiangxi and Anhui. With a fixed capacity of 12 MW, each station can supply 7.2 billion kWh per year to 70,000 households.

China has implemented back-end incentives to promote the development of biomass industry, the supportive measures include:

(1) Quota system China requires power and oil companies to use certain portion of energy from the biomass energy in their energy structure based on an introduced quota system. At present, the main quota policy is designed to promote fuel ethanol; 27 cities in five provinces have started their attempt to promote E10 gasoline.

(2) Pricing mechanism

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Fixed feed-in tariff: The feed-in tariff of 0.75 yuan per kilowatt hour (including tax) was implemented since 2010 to support the new agricultural and forestry biomass power generation projects. But the mixed fuel power generation projects with conventional energy exceeding 20% in power generation consumption do not enjoy this subsidiary feed-in tariff.

Fuel ethanol price: The domestic sales settlement price of fuel ethanol is only 91.11% of the 90# gasoline price, which provides price protection for the fuel ethanol production enterprises.

6.5 Obstacles to bioenergy development

In order to promote the development of bioenergy, two obstacles need to be overcome, the first one is the imperfect policy system. For example, the subsidies policy and effective means of promotion are far from enough for the thriving of biodiesel. Although the price index has been rising continuously in recent years, the government has not adjusted the feed-in tariffs of the biomass power generation since 2010; Specifically, the current subsidy for straw raw material (140 yuan/ton) cannot maintain the briquette fuels industry and the government should rise the feed-in tariffs of biomass industry in response to the rising cost.

Another obstacle is the weak enforcement of planned policies. China has made systematic biomass policy framework, but this is insufficient as the specific policy guidance at the micro level. The insufficiency can be seen in the lack of specific operational approaches for the pronounced policies; in the lack of sustainability in the formulation and implementation of industrial incentive policy and market finance and taxation policy; and in the lack of effective management rules in the aspects of standard system, market supervision and sales channels. Meanwhile, the management system is insufficient and execution mechanism unclear, restricting the development of bioenergy.

China’s biomass power includes 62 % of straw direct-fired power generation and 29 % of waste incineration, with other feedstock taking the 9 %. China increased biomass energy at a rapid pace because it has the merit of zero carbon debt or small environmental impacts and would not compete with edible food crops. This rapid development is illustrated by the rising installed biomass power generation capacity

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from 1.4 GW in 2006 to 14.88 GW in 2017 [124]. By 2030, China will increase the installed capacity of biomass energy to 30 GW.

As a game-changer in China’s energy future, biomass will take a significant role in China’s national energy-mix. However, since biomass is still unable to compete with fossil fuels, the Chinese government implement a series of financial incentive measures to develop and utilize biomass energy due to its remarkable comprehensive benefit for the traditional energy replacement and ecological environment protection. Currently available incentive means include front-end incentive to encourage biomass energy industry production chain, and market back-end measures to promote sales and usage, as well as some indirect stimulus to facilitate the development of the whole industry. Policy information about the front-end incentives is shown in Table 7.

7. Nuclear power

Nuclear power is one of China’s solutions to tackle the increasing atmospheric pollution and to meet the surging electricity demand. In 2018, nuclear power only accounts for 4.22% of China’s total energy production. A study shows that China would address its energy demand with nuclear accounting for 15% in 2050 [20]. A rapid growth of the nuclear industry is necessary under the support of China’s aggressive nuclear strategy. The closed nuclear fuel cycle policy shown in Figure 15 helps China become largely self-sufficient in reactor design and construction, as well as other aspects of the fuel cycle. China’s nuclear development dates back to early 1980s. Pressurized water reactors (PWR) have been first deployed, and China is facing a considerable spent fuel accumulation. As in October 2019, a total of 449 nuclear reactor units are in operation in 30 countries, with 47 of them are in China. These reactors produce 50 GWe electricity, placing China the world’s third-largest nuclear power producer in terms of installed nuclear generating capacity. The ten largest nuclear power plants are shown in Table 8. China also has 11 units under construction with an installed capacity of about 12 GWe, ranking the country first in the world in that respect.

Barriers to nuclear energy development can be summarized as the following categories: (1) high construction costs relative to coal and gas; (2) long construction phase (typically 4 to 7 years in Asia versus 1 or 2 years for coal-fired plants); (3) public concern about reactor safety, waste disposal, health impact and misuse for military purpose. By leveraging massive manufacturing, China attempts to accelerate

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deployment rates with substantial reduction of cost and construction time. Researchers in China are dedicated to develop sophisticated and comprehensive passive safety measures to ensure that automatic reactor shutdown and cooling under emergence. From the energy saving point, more innovative designs are proposed to use less nuclear fuels, to minimize nuclear waste, and to reduce or eliminate cooling-water consumptions. The promising but immature molten salt technology are extensively studied. Meanwhile, China also cooperates with United States to develop new technologies, ranging from small modular light-water, gas-cooled, molten salt, and liquid-metal-cooled reactors, sodium-cooled fast reactors, thorium-fueled molten salt reactors, high-temperature gas reactors, to fluoride salt-cooled, solid-fuel, high- temperature reactors [126].

The lessons from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 help China shift its focus from the speed and scale of expansion to questions of safety and quality. More nuclear projects are shifted towards inland, away from the crowded coast. This trend can be clearly seen from the distribution of NPP in Figure 16.

8. Conclusion

China has become the world’s largest developing country, primary energy consumer, and carbon emitter. In 2015, China alone contributed about 28% of the global carbon dioxide emissions, while it contributed 17% of the global GDP [129]. Nearly three- quarters (73%) of the growth in global carbon emission between 2010 and 2012 occurred in China [4]. In terms of the magnitude and growth rate of its carbon emissions, China plays a critical role in reducing global CO2 emissions by developing new technologies on carbon emission and renewable energy delivery.

High-speed economy growth, upsurging energy demand and tightening restrictions of GHGs emission exert great pressure on China. The coal-dominated primary energy supply has led to persistent environmental issues, such as the notorious air pollution. Faced with huge energy demand, depleting fossil fuel resources and deteriorating environmental situations and increasing international pressure to control its carbon emissions, China has expended considerable effort on low-carbon and sustainable energy system development to deal with the sharp conflict between rapid economic growth and substantial greenhouse gas emission. In view of the abundance of potential renewable energy sources in China, it is essential and meaningful to integrate renewable energy into future energy systems in China. Renewable energy is an essential and

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practicable path to achieve China's energy independence, to reduce pollutant emissions from fossil fuel consumption and ultimately to mitigate climate change. Climate science reveals that the world is approaching limits on fossil fuel emissions, if climate is to be stabilized.

The approaching of large-scale applications of renewable energy will have broad and far-reaching influence on the power industry in China. The rapid deployments of renewable energy will make them become the main power source by 2030. Renewable energy will be developed not only to meet new electricity but to replace the existing traditional thermal power plants. Currently, technology innovations have progressively lowered the cost of renewable energy, enhancing the competitiveness against other power sources. For instance, in many solar-rich countries (e.g., Chile, India, etc.), solar energy has become the cheapest power sources.

Up to date, the development of renewable energy faces several major limitations in China. First of all, when compared with traditional fossil fuels, the higher fund investment in research and transformation makes renewable energy suffered from high cost and poor popularity due to its capital-intensive nature. Generally, regions with coal-dominated energy structure are less interested in renewable energy upgrade. Moreover, renewable energy generation needs to overcome the reliability issue due to its intermittency and instability [130], which would negatively influence the secure and reliable operation of power system.

China faces huge challenges in renewable energy development, which need to be met in the next following decades. As concerns hydropower, most of them are built in the southwest part of China, where over 80% of China's earthquakes occur. For wind energy exploitation, China should reform its power market to achieve more market-based pricing, reflecting externalities, integration costs and the value of flexibility. As to solar energy, carbon capture and storage will impose an efficiency penalty and need careful consideration of plant location to optimize CO2 transport networks [131]. In terms of bioenergy, the low energy densities of biomass fuels, and the high cost related to collection and transportation hinder the development of this energy source. More advanced technologies are expected to lower the cost related to the collection and storage of feedstock, pre-treatment of biomass and Enzyme production. In terms of nuclear energy, China has already taken a large step towards implementing its own 3rd Generation nuclear technology via close cooperation with AREVA and Westinghouse. But the Fukushima nuclear accident requires policy makers to consider nuclear plants

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at safest locations and build with strictest safety regulations.

Another huge challenge for China’s renewable energy development is to balance the electricity system to ensure that supply meets demand. Coal-fired power plants are highly responsive, i.e., their electricity output varies relatively quickly in response to different demands. But when they are replaced by intermittent energy sources (wind, solar), the outputs are unstable and unpredictable. This uncertainty and uncontrollability need to be taken into consideration and addressed. Geologically, China's population centres are concentrated towards the East of the country, whereas wind, solar and hydro resources are most abundant in the West part. Therefore, planning around integrating geographically diverse sources of electricity (with large penetrations of variable output renewables) will require specific policy to develop a suitable electricity transmission system and smart grid management.

From the aforementioned study, some recommendations are proposed to boost renewable energy development in China:

(1) Develop smart-grid system to improve renewable energy connectivity. More and more electricity is generated by gigawatt-level wind farms and solar PV/thermal power plants, to connect large amounts of this renewable power to the electricity grid, particularly at peak hours, smart-grid technology needs to be developed to maximize renewable energy connectivity to the grid.

(2) Support more renewable energy research and demonstration activities. China’s ambition of becoming the world’s largest renewable energy market is constrained by its shortage of R&D and demonstration efforts, as illustrated by its lack of a national institution dedicated to energy research and related activities. To quicken and scale up the renewable energy development and deployment, specialized research and innovation institutions at both national and local levels should be established and financially supported.

(3) Renovate the feed-in tariff system and the Renewable Energy Fund system. Even if a feed-in-tariff system is employed to support the development of renewable power, the significant complicacy of this pricing system is far beyond interested investors, especially international and small private investors. An advanced fixed-price structure for each technology based on its specific characteristics (e.g., resource potential, geographical distribution, and technological maturity) would be a better

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choice to replace the current system. Moreover, greater transparency in China’s Renewable Energy Fund is requited to set an annual budget specifying which technology is eligible for the funding and subsidy and clarifying the disbursement procedures and other criteria for eligible stakeholders.

(4) China should strengthen and rebuild its electricity network as well as promote levitative coordination between different levels of governments. Meanwhile, manufacturing facilities and incentives for various renewable industries need to be enhanced with more-detailed policy support from different legislation bodies.

(5) China ought to develop a robust social regulation-based renewable energy regulation path. A sustainable society requires that renewable development to be shifted from the supply side of power generation to the demand side and from administrative regulation to market-driven regulation. On the technology side, more attention should be paid to the energy-saving, energy-efficient technology on the power demand-side management side. On the economic regulatory side, these will policy orientation, openness and transparency should be improved to allow renewable energy pricing matching with a combination of market-driven and government guidance. On social regulatory side, regulatory policies on resource efficiency, environmental protection and electrical power security should be emphasized to reach the goal of coordinated development among renewable energy, economy, society and environment.

Acknowledgement

We thank our colleagues Chunrong Zhao, Peixin Dong and Kamel Hooman from the University of Queensland who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the study. We also thank Suoying He and Ming Gao from Shandong University for sharing their knowledge which greatly improved the manuscript.

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Figures

Figure 1 Primary energy consumption and growth rate of China in 2016-2050 [9].

(a)

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(b)

Figure 2 (a) Primary energy consumption in world's major regions. (b) Proportion of primary energy consumption in world's major regions [16].

Figure 3 Installed electric power capacity and growth (1980-2017) [13]

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Figure 4 The current status and projection of China’s energy structure for 2016-2050.

Figure 5 Capital investment in various sources of renewable energy (2005-2017) [32]

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Figure 6 Proportion of China's renewable energy consumption (2011‐2017) [16].

Figure 7. Largest hydroelectric plants in China and their installed capacity (MW) [45]

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Figure 8 The distribution of China’s water resources. The dotted line shows a planned water-delivery system by drawing sea water from the Bohai sea and delivering to the water-starved northern China (Xinlinhot and Xinjiang) [45].

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Figure 9. Distribution of wind power resources in China [93]

Figure 10. China’s annual installed capacity of wind power from 1985 to 2015 [98].

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Figure 11 Cumulative installed capacity of wind energy in different regions of China in 2014 (MW). Provinces with most wind power installed are also those that have significant wind resources [104].

Figure 12 Distribution of solar power resources in China [7].

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Figure 13 Direct normal insolation (DNI) resources in China (Source: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the United States) [116].

Figure 14 Major Biomass Power Stations in China (including on the plan) [125]

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Figure 15 Closed fuel cycle policy in China [127]

Figure 16 Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in China

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Tables Table 1 Some supportive policies or plans for renewable energy development in China Year Laws Subsidy policies and programs

1996 / · Brightness Program (solar PV)

Energy Conservation 1997 / Law

· Township Electrification Program 2002 / (solar PV)

2003 / · First concession bidding round for onshore wind power projects

2004 / · Medium and Long-Term Energy Conservation Plan

2005 Renewable Energy Law · Guiding Catalog for Industry of Renewable Energy

· Category of High Technology Products for Export · Pricing and Costs Sharing Management Policies of Electricity · Generation Using Renewable Energy (Provisional) · Related Regulations of Electricity Generation Using Renewable Energy · Provisional Policies of Renewable Energy Development Special Fund Management · Provisional Policies for Renewable Energy Building Special Fund 2006 / Management · Implementation Opinions of Financial Supporting Policies to Develop Biomass Energy and Biochemical Engineering and emphasized elastic deficit subsidy for biomass energy · Notice on Renewable Energy Generated Electricity Subsidy and Quota Transaction Plan · Notice on Grid Power Tariff Adjustment

· National Climate Change Program · 11th Five-Year Plan for Energy development · Provisional Policies of Reallocating Renewable Energy Tariff Revised Energy 2007 Surcharge Conservation Law · Regulations on Grid Operators' Purchasing Renewable Energy Generated Electricity · Regulation on the Implementation of the Enterprise Income Tax Law

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· Provisional Policies for Biomass Energy and Non-grain Biochemical Engineering Guiding and Awarding Fund Management · Provisional Policies for Biomass Energy and Biochemical Engineering Raw Materials Base Subsidy Fund Management

· 11th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy development · Provisional Policies for Wind Energy Generated Electricity Equipment Industrialization Special Fund Management 2008 / · Adjustment of Import Tax Preferential Policies for Large-scale Wind Energy Electricity Generator Equipment, Key components and Raw Materials · Notice on Grid Power Tariff Adjustment

· First feed-in-staff scheme for onshore wind energy · First concession bidding found for onshore solar PV projects · Rooftop subsidy and Golden Sun programs (solar PV) · Provisional Policies for Energy-Saving and New Energy Cars Demonstration and Promotion Financial Subsidy Fund Management Revised Renewable 2009 · Provisional Policies for Solar PV Power Constructions Financial Energy Law Subsidy Fund Management · Notice on Improving Wind Energy Generated Electricity On-grid Power Tariff Policy · Notice on Grid Power Tariff Adjustment · Notice on Improving Electricity Operation

· Opinions on Major Tasks in Deepening the Reform of Economic System 2010 · Notice on Improving Agricultural and Forestry Biomass Energy Generated Electricity Price Policy

· First feed-in-staff scheme for solar PV · Notice on Improving Solar PV Power Generated Electricity Price 2011 / Policy · Notice on Grid Power Tariff Adjustment

· 12th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy development · Provisional Policies for Renewable Energy Tariff Surcharge Subsidy Draft Climate Change 2012 Fund Management Law · Notice on Improving Waste Incineration Generated Electricity Price Policy

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· 12th Five-Year Energy Development Plan · State Council Opinion on Promoting the Healthy Development of Photovoltaic Industry 2013 / · Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution · Announcement of Value-added Policies for PV Generated Electricity · Notice on Adjusting the Levying Standard of Renewable Energy Tariff Surcharge

· 13th Five Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development · Promote offshore wind and ocean power development. 2016 · Lead renewable energy technology innovation. · Resolve renewable power curtailment issue problem.

Table 2 The construction plan of wind power plants on the 10 GW-scale bases [93]

Potential capacity Technically exploitable Province Planed installation by 2020 (GW) capacity (GW)

Gansu 210 82 21.91 GW

38.3 GW in West Inner Inner Mongolia 1300 380 Mongolia & 20.81 GW in East

Hebei 79.3 23.79 14.13 GW

Xinjiang 250 64 10.8 GW

Jiangsu 13.9 3.4 10.75 GW

Jilin 1115.4 43.94 21.3 GW

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Table 3 The evaluation of solar energy resources in China

Annual total solar Sunshine hours radiation number Provinces or autonomous regions Characteristics per year (MJ/m2)

The poorest area of solar energy

Most regions in Guizhou and Sichuan resources in China. The solar 1000 ~ 1400 3344 ~ 4180 Provinces energy per year is equivalent to

115 ~ 140 kg of standard coal.

Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, The annual solar energy resources Northern Fujian, Northern Guangdong, 1400 ~ 2200 4180 ~ 5016 in this region is equivalent to 140 ~ Southern Anhui, Southern Guangdong, 170 kg of standard coal. Southern Shanxi and Zhejiang

Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Northern Shanxi,

Northern Xinjiang, Shandong, Southern The annual solar energy resources

2200 ~ 3000 5016 ~ 5852 Guangdong, Southern Shanxi, in this area is equivalent to 170 ~

Southeastern Hebei, Southeastern Gansu 200 kg of standard coal.

and Yunnan

Central Gansu, Eastern Qinghai,

Northern Hebei, Northern Shanxi, The annual solar energy resources

3000 ~ 3200 5852 ~ 6680 Southern Inner Mongolia, Southern in this area is equivalent to 200 ~

Ningxia, Southern Xinjiang and 225 kg of standard coal.

Southeastern Tibet

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The richest area of solar energy Northern Gansu, Northern Ningxia, resources in China with annual 3200 ~ 3300 6680 ~ 8400 Southern Xinjiang, Western Qinghai and solar energy equivalent to 225 ~ Western Tibet 285 kg of standard coal.

Table 4 Comparison of three major technology options for CSP [23, 24]

CSP systems Parabolic trough Power tower Dish Stirling Power range (MW) 30~320 10~200 3~25 Concentration ration 10~100 ＞1000 500~1000 Conversion efficiency (%) ~14 ＞15 ~30 Commercially available & great Potential hybrid High conversion operating potential & high operation & high efficiency, practical & efficiency & reasonable costs of efficiency with potential hybrid operation Advantages investment and operation & enormous operating lowest material demand & good capability & storage at storage capacity & hybrid elevated temperature concept proven Oil-based heat transformation Initial investment, Further improvement limits temperature to 400℃ & annual performance required & relatively fail to generate high-quality values and operating excessive costs of mass Disadvantages steam & possible breakdown costs need further production interruptions due to the long improvement to achieve tubing through the parabolic commercial success

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though collectors Middle to high process heat & high-temperature Small off-grid power grid-connected facilities process heat & grid- systems & stand-alone & Applications connected facilities clustered to form large grid-connected dish parks Table 5 Key siting parameters of CSP

Siting parameters Requirements

Solar resources Abundant: a minimum of 5 kWh/m2 per day or 1800 kWh/m2 per year for economic exploitation

Land space 20 km2/MWe or 5 acres

Land topography Flat: slope less than 3, less than 1 most economical

Land use Limited agricultural use and biological habitat

Fossil fuel availability Useful for hybridization, but not necessary

Water availability Sufficient supply for steam turbine. Dry cooling as an alternative

Grid availability and capacity For a capacity of 100MV, the transmission lines costs $50,000 to $180,000 per mile.

Transportation facility Close to transmission-line corridor, rail transportation system and natural gas pipeline

Table 6 Location and installed capacity of biomass power station shown in Figure 14 (Numbers correspond to those in the map) [125].

No Location State MW No Location State MW No Location State MW

1 Wangkui Heilongjiang 30 30 Weixian Hebei 25 58 Jiangyin Jiangsu 12 2 Long jiang Heilongjiang 30 31 Fuping Hebei 12 59 Baoying Jiangsu 15

3 Qing'an Heilongjiang 30 32 Wuqiao Hebei 12 60 Lianyungang Jiangsu 15

4 Bayan Heilongjiang 12 33 Jinzhou Hebei 24 61 Sheyang Jiangsu 25 5 Suibin Heilongjiang 12 34 Shanxian Shandong 25 62 Huai'an Jiangsu 30 6 Mishan Heilongjiang 12 35 Kenli Shandong 30 63 Dafeng Jiangsu 12 7 Tangyuan Heilongjiang 24 36 Gaotang Shandong 30 64 Donghai Jiangsu 24

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8 Liaoyuan Jilin 30 37 Juye Shandong 12 65 Gaoyou Jiangsu 4 9 Meihekou Jilin 12 38 Wudi Shandong 24 66 Jurong Jiangsu 24 10 Fuyu Jilin 12 39 Shifang Shandong 3.5 67 Poyang Jiangsu 24 11 Yongi Jilin 12 40 Ningyang Shandong 12 68 Rudong Jiangsu 25

12 Gongzhuling Jilin 30 41 Yucheng Shandong 15 69 Suqian Jiangsu 24

13 Dehui Jilin 30 42 Zhangye Gansu 24 70 Wanzai Jiangsu 24 14 Jiutai Jilin 25 43 Fuping Shanxi 12 71 Shouxian Anhui 30 15 Nongan Jilin 50 44 Luyi Henan 25 72 Anqing Anhui 30 16 Chifeng Neimenggu 12 45 Xinxiang Henan 30 73 Wangjiang Anhui 24 17 Ningcheng Neimenggu 12 46 Luohe Henan 3 74 Wuhe Anhui 24 18 Kailu Neimenggu 12 47 Jinyun Henan 36 75 Hong'an Hubei 12 19 Wengniute Neimenggu 12 48 Xuchang Henan 15 76 Jianli Hubei 24 20 Baotou Neimenggu 25 49 Fugou Henan 24 77 Jingsha Hubei 24 21 Tongliao Neimenggu 12 50 Fengqiu Henan 12 78 Qichun Hubei 24 22 Awati Xinjiang 12 51 Junxian Henan 25 79 Yicheng Hubei 24 23 Bachu Xinjiang 12 52 Xinyang Henan 24 80 Santai Sichuan 12 24 n.a. Liaoning 2 53 Changshu Jiangsu 12 81 Tongxing Chongqing 12 25 Changtu Liaoning 12 54 Taichang Jiangsu 6 82 Changsha Hunan 4 26 Heishan Liaoning 12 55 Suzhou Jiangsu 18 83 Qidong Hunan 48 27 Tuchang Liaoning 56 Yixing Jiangsu 9 84 Yiyang Hunan 48 29 Cheng'an Hebei 30 57 Suzhou Jiangsu 2.5 85 Yueyang Hunan 48

Table 7 Description of front-end incentives

Incentive Category Policy details measures Subsidies for Forestry raw materials Base subsidy: 30 yuan/are feedstock Agricultural raw materials Base subsidy: 27 yuan/are Straw 140 yuan will be granted to the enterprise per ton Fuel ethanol Subsidy for grain and non-grain ethanol are 500 yuan/ton and

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750 yuan/ton. Project Rural household biogas project China invested billions to support rural household biogas, funding biogas service system and the construction of breeding aquatics village and co-peasant household biogas every year. Green energy county project Central government provides financial support for biogas centralized gas supply engineering, biomass gasification engineering, and biomass briquette fuel engineering. Urban heating engineering In 2014-2015, 5 billion yuan was invested to build 120 project biomass briquette boiler heating demonstration projects in areas with severe atmospheric pollution and urgent need for coal consumption reduction Low-interest Banks will offer up to 1-3 years 3% discount interest funds loan renewable energy development and utilization project meeting the credit conditions Tax relief Value added tax (VAT) relief The tax authorities implemented 100% and 80% tax rebates in 2009 and 2010 to taxpayers using agricultural and forestry residues as the raw materials Income tax relief Enterprises producing products from main raw materials specified by the government will enjoy reduced tax.

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Table 8 Ten largest nuclear power plants in China (NPP: Nuclear Power Plant) [128] Yangjiang NPP Six 1GW CPR-1000 pressurized water reactors 6GW Guangdong province Hongyanhe NPP Four CPR-1000 nuclear reactor units 4.24GW Liaoning province Qinshan NPP Phase I (1991): a CNP-300 PWR unit 4.1GW Zhejiang Phase II: four CNP-600 PWR units. province Phase III ： two Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) 6 pressurised heavy-water reactor (PHWR) units. Tianwan NPP Phase I (2007): two units of VVER V-428 PWR units with a 4.1GW Jiangsu capacity of 990MW each. Province Phase II (2018): two VVER V-428M PWR units with a capacity of 1,060MW each. Phase III (2021): two CNP-1000 PWR units with a capacity of 1GW each Ningde NPP Phase I (2016): four CPR-100 PWR units of 1,018MW capacity 4.07GW Fujian each. Province Phase II： two HPR1000 units featuring indigenously developed Gen-III technology. Fuqing NPP Phase I (2017): Four CNP-1000 PWR units with a capacity of 1GW 4GW Fujian each. The four units were commissioned between 2014 and 2017. Province Phase II (2020)：two HPR1000 PWR units with a capacity 1GW each. Ling Ao NPP Phase I (2003): two M310 model PWR units with a capacity of 3.91GW Guangdong 950MW each. The phase one construction was started in May 1997 Province and commissioned in January 2003. Phase II (2011)： two CPR-1000 PWR units with a capacity of 1,007MW each, Taishan NPP Two GEN-III European Pressurised Reactor technology-based 3.32GW Guangdong EPR-1750 units with a capacity of 1,660MW each. Province Sanmen NPP Two Westinghouse GEN-III AP1000 PWR units with a capacity of 2.31GW Zhejiang 1,157MW each Province Haiyang NPP Two Westinghouse AP1000 PWR units with a capacity of 2.25GW Shandong 1,126MW each province

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