National Energy Administration: In Q1, 59.71 GW of new PV capacity was grid-connected, including 23.41 GW of centralized PV capacity.

Published: Apr 28, 2025 13:36 (GMT+8)
On April 28, the National Energy Administration (NEA) held a press conference, where Deputy Director General Pan Huimin introduced the grid connection and operation status of renewable energy in Q1. Since the beginning of this year, the NEA has thoroughly implemented the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and the second and third plenary sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee. Focused on achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, the NEA has coordinated energy security supply with green and low-carbon development, sparing no effort to propel the development of renewable energy to new heights.

On April 28, the National Energy Administration (NEA) held a press conference, where Deputy Director-General Pan Huimin introduced the grid connection and operation status of renewable energy in Q1.

Since the beginning of this year, the NEA has thoroughly implemented the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and the second and third plenary sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, anchored the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, coordinated energy security supply with green and low-carbon development, and spared no effort in promoting the development of renewable energy to a new level.

The installed capacity of renewable energy has continued to achieve new breakthroughs. Renewable energy has maintained its dominant position in new installations, with the installed capacity of wind and PV power generation historically surpassing that of thermal power. In Q1 2025, the country's new installations of renewable energy reached 76.75 million kW, up 21% YoY, accounting for approximately 90% of the total new installations. Among them, hydropower added 2.13 million kW, wind power added 14.62 million kW, solar power added 59.71 million kW, and biomass power added 290,000 kW. As of the end of March 2025, the country's installed capacity of renewable energy reached 1.966 billion kW, up 24% YoY, accounting for approximately 57.3% of China's total installed capacity. Among them, hydropower installed capacity was 438 million kW, wind power installed capacity was 535 million kW, solar power installed capacity was 946 million kW, and biomass power installed capacity was 46 million kW. The combined installed capacity of wind and PV power generation reached 1.482 billion kW, historically surpassing the full-scope installed capacity of thermal power (1.45 billion kW), and this will become the norm in the future.

The power generation of renewable energy has steadily advanced to a new level. The proportion of wind and solar power generation in the total electricity consumption of the whole society exceeded 20%, surpassing the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry and the electricity consumption of urban and rural residents in the same period, driving the proportion of non-fossil energy power generation to increase to approximately 40%. The additional power generation from wind and PV exceeded the increase in the total electricity consumption of the whole society. In Q1 2025, the country's power generation from renewable energy reached 816 billion kWh, up 18.7% YoY, accounting for approximately 35.9% of the total power generation. Among them, the combined power generation from wind and solar reached 536.8 billion kWh, up 26.1% YoY, accounting for 22.5% of the total electricity consumption of the whole society, an increase of 4.3 percentage points YoY, significantly surpassing the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry in the same period (446.5 billion kWh) and the electricity consumption of urban and rural residents in the same period (385.3 billion kWh). The combined power generation from wind and PV increased by 111 billion kWh YoY, already exceeding the increase in the total electricity consumption of the whole society. Next, I will introduce the relevant situations of the main types of renewable energy power generation separately.

(I) Hydropower construction and operation status. In Q1 2025, the country's new grid-connected capacity of hydropower was 2.13 million kW, including 730,000 kW of conventional hydropower and 1.4 million kW of pumped storage. As of the end of March 2025, the country's cumulative installed capacity of hydropower reached 438 million kW, including 378 million kW of conventional hydropower and 59.87 million kW of pumped storage. In Q1 2025, the country's cumulative power generation from hydropower above designated size was 223.3 billion kWh, and the cumulative average utilization hours of hydropower nationwide were 564 hours.

(II) Wind power construction and operation status. In Q1 2025, the country's new grid-connected capacity of wind power was 14.62 million kW, including 13.64 million kW of onshore wind power and 980,000 kW of offshore wind power. As of the end of March 2025, the country's cumulative grid-connected capacity of wind power reached 535 million kW, up 17.2% YoY, including 493 million kW of onshore wind power and 42.73 million kW of offshore wind power. In Q1 2025, the country's cumulative power generation from wind power was 303.6 billion kWh, up 15.2% YoY, and the average utilization rate of wind power nationwide was 93.3%.

(III) PV power generation construction and operation status. In Q1 2025, the country's new grid-connected capacity of PV power generation was 59.71 million kW, including 23.41 million kW of centralized PV and 36.31 million kW of distributed PV. As of the end of March 2025, the country's installed capacity of PV power generation reached 945 million kW, up 43.4% YoY, including 534 million kW of centralized PV and 411 million kW of distributed PV. In Q1 2025, the country's cumulative power generation from PV power generation was 232.8 billion kWh, up 43.9% YoY, and the utilization rate of PV power generation nationwide was 93.6%.

(IV) Biomass power generation construction and operation status. In Q1 2025, the country's new installations of biomass power generation were 290,000 kW, and the cumulative installed capacity reached 46.27 million kW, up 3.4% YoY. The power generation from biomass power generation was 56.1 billion kWh, up 8.2% YoY.

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