OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — China’s energy council has forecast its non-fossil fuel energy sources to hit half of its total power generation capacity by the end of the year.
A report issued by the China Electricity Council, CEC late Thursday, said the country is expected to add 180 gigawatts (GW) of renewable sources in 2022, increasing its non-fossil fuel capacity to 1,300 GW.
China is currently the world’s biggest greenhouse gasses emitter and coal consumer.
That equates to half of the CEC’s forecast of total installed power generation capacity in China of 2,600 GW by the end of 2022, of which 1,140 GW would be coal-fired power capacity, the report said.
China has pledged to “control” coal consumption in the 2021-2025 period and bring total wind and solar capacity to at least 1,200 GW by end of this decade in order to trim carbon emissions by around 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060.
The council also forecasted the country’s electricity consumption to increase by 5%-6% in 2022 from a year earlier, reaching 8.7 trillion to 8.8 trillion kilowatt-hours.
“(We) expect the electricity supply and demand situation in 2022 to be generally balanced across the country. But some regions could see power crunch during peak demand hours in summer and winter season,” the CEC said.
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