Мониторинг событий в экологической сфере КНР (по состоянию на 01.10.2025 г.)
— На рассмотрение китайским законодателям был представлен доклад о ситуации по борьбе с изменением климата. В докладе, подготовленном Госсоветом КНР, подробно описываются успехи, достигнутые в борьбе с изменением климата, а также ситуация, связанная с достижением пиковых выбросов углерода и углеродной нейтральности.
В докладе говорится, что Китай добился значительного прогресса в энергетическом и промышленном переходе. К июню т.г. установленные мощности неископаемых источников энергии в КНР достигли 2,22 млрд. кВт, что составляет 60,9% от общего показателя. Производство фотоэлектрических модулей в 3,7 раза превышает показатель начала 14-й пятилетки (2021–2025 гг.), а производство литиевых аккумуляторов — в 6,4 раза. В докладе также говорится, что Китай уже 10 лет подряд занимает лидирующие позиции в мире по производству и продажам автомобилей на новых источниках энергии.
— ПК ВСНП принял закон, направленный на содействие развитию атомной энергетики и обеспечение ее безопасного использования. Новый закон призван усовершенствовать правовые механизмы в области атомной энергетики, привести их в соответствие с международными обязательствами. В выпущенном в связи с этим заявлении подчеркивается, что «мирное использование» является ключевым принципом нового закона. Документ призывает, в частности, к активному, безопасному и упорядоченному развитию атомной энергетики, поддержке использования ядерных реакторов для отопления, опреснения воды и производства водорода, а также применения соответствующих технологий и оборудования в сельском хозяйстве, биологии, здравоохранении и охране окружающей среды.
— Министр экологии и охраны окружающей среды КНР Хуан Жуньцю заявил, что Китай создал крупнейшую в мире сеть экологического и природоохранного мониторинга, которая всё больше задействует передовые технологии. Количество станций мониторинга, находящихся в непосредственном подчинении министерства по всей стране, превышает 33 тыс. Эти станции контролируют широкий спектр данных, включая воду, воздух, почву, океаны, экосистемы и уровень шума.
В частности, в процессе мониторинга задействованы лаборатории, способные проводить анализ без вмешательства человека даже в полной темноте, что повышает эффективность работы более чем в восемь раз по сравнению с традиционными технологиями. Вместе с тем сеть водного и воздушного мониторинга планируется и далее модернизировать, после чего частота технического обслуживания таких объектов сократится с одного раза в неделю до одного раза в месяц, что позволит сократить «вмешательство» человека более чем на 70 процентов.
— Китай намерен ввести более 100 ГВт новых систем хранения энергии к 2027 году согласно новому плану действий, представленному властями. «Специальный план действий по масштабному строительству новых систем накопления энергии (2025–2027 гг.)», опубликованный Госкомитетом реформ и развития КНР, представляет собой дорожную карту по масштабированию систем накопления для поддержки растущего потенциала возобновляемой энергетики страны. Ожидается, что этот план привлечёт 250 млрд. юаней (примерно 35 млрд. долл.) инвестиций в сектор в течение трёх лет. Китай уже перевыполнил свои предыдущие цели. Страна достигла своей цели в 30 ГВт к 2025 году на два года раньше. По данным Китайского альянса по системам хранения энергии (CNESA), по состоянию на июнь 2025 года объем новых накопителей в Китае превысил 100 ГВт, впервые обогнав ввод в эксплуатацию гидроэлектростанций.
— Министерство промышленности и информационных технологий КНР на Всемирной конференции по хранению энергии 2025 года представило Дорожную карту развития технологий хранения энергии нового типа (2025–2035 гг.), которая содержит рекомендации по дальнейшему развитию промышленности и обеспечению высокого уровня промышленной безопасности. Эта дорожная карта охватывает пять ключевых направлений: электрохимическое, механическое, электромагнитное хранение энергии, холодное хранение тепловой энергии и хранение водорода.
— Доминирование Китая в производстве возобновляемой энергии способствует снижению затрат и делает чистую энергию более доступной во всем мире, заявляют отраслевые эксперты. Только в 2024 году в мире было введено около 582 ГВт новых мощностей возобновляемой энергетики, при этом на Китай пришлось около 370 ГВт, что составляет более 60 процентов общего показателя.
Согласно отчету, опубликованному недавно IRENA, мировой рынок систем хранения энергии переживает взрывной рост, обусловленный технологическим прогрессом и быстрым снижением цен. В отчете подчеркивается ключевая роль развития накопителей энергии, а также отмечается, что сочетание солнечной энергии и накопителей энергии становится все более экономичным решением в области зеленой энергетики, более экономичным, чем сочетание угля и улавливания, утилизации и хранения углерода (CCUS).
К концу 2024 года совокупная установленная мощность новых проектов хранения энергии во всем мире достигла примерно 180 ГВт, что почти вдвое превышает показатель конца 2023 года — около 90 ГВт. Среди них, в 2024 году на Китай пришлось 42,37 ГВт, что делает страну лидером в мировой индустрии накопления энергии. В частности, в отчете IRENA — первом отчете агентства, посвященном проектам хранения энергии — отмечается, что время работы литий-ионных аккумуляторов постепенно увеличивается, что превращает их в важнейшую технологию для длительного хранения энергии.
— Китай увеличил площадь зеленых насаждений более чем на 25 процентов, что составляет четверть всех новых зелёных зон в мире. Лю Гохун, руководитель Управления лесного хозяйства и пастбищ КНР, заявил, что за последние пять лет Китай озеленил 36,6 млн га земли, включая 12,3 млн га новых лесных территорий, что сопоставимо с площадью провинции Фуцзянь. «В Китае наблюдается самый большой и быстрый рост зелёных площадей в мире», — сказал он. «Общество получило огромную выгоду от роста лесных хозяйств и пастбищ», — добавил он. Например, в 2024 году в провинции Чжэцзян в одном из уездов удалось увеличить доход более 40 тыс. фермеров, выращивающих бамбук.
— В своем выступлении на Климатическом саммите ООН председатель Си Цзиньпин подтвердил неизменную приверженность Китая борьбе с изменением климата. Назвав переход к «зелёной» экономике и низкоуглеродной экономике «тенденцией нашего времени», он призвал международное сообщество «сохранять фокус на правильном направлении», несмотря на то, что «некоторые страны действуют против этого». Китай неизменно уделяет первостепенное внимание глобальному климатическому управлению и активно участвует в нём. Ранее страна обязалась достичь пика выбросов углерода до 2030 года и углеродной нейтральности к 2060 году. Однако цели, объявленные Си Цзиньпином к 2035 году, знаменуют собой новый этап в климатической политике Китая. Они включают в себя сокращение чистых выбросов парниковых газов на 7–10% от пиковых значений; увеличение доли неископаемого топлива в потреблении энергии до более чем 30%; и увеличение установленной мощности ветро- и солнечной энергетики более чем в шесть раз по сравнению с уровнем 2020 года. Этот сдвиг подкрепляется другими обязательствами, такими как радикальное увеличение лесных территорий, расширение использования экологичных автомобилей и т.д.
— Данные показывают, что доля поверхностных вод достаточно хорошего качества, (III и выше категории) во всем бассейне реки Хуанхэ увеличилась с 66,4% в 2018 году до более чем 90% в настоящее время. Более того, этот высокий стандарт сохраняется два года подряд, начиная с 2023 года. Кроме того, доля поверхностных вод ниже V категории, самого низкого уровня, снизилась с 12,4% до нуля.
— В рамках проекта по улавливанию, использованию и хранению углерода на нефтяном месторождении Баян (Внутренняя Монголия) в нефтяные пласты было закачано более 70 тыс т углекислого газа. Это знаменует собой создание крупномасштабной базы по утилизации и хранению CO2 во Внутренней Монголии.
На нефтяном месторождении давно используется метод закачивания воды в пласты для извлечения нефти. Коэффициент извлечения в данном случае составляет около 20 процентов. В целях экономии воды и сокращения выбросов углерода в 2020 году на нефтяном месторождении началось изучение возможности использования CO2 для добычи нефти. Благодаря проекту CCUS компания увеличила коэффициент извлечения нефти примерно до 45 процентов.
В последние годы китайские технологии CCUS достигла значительного прогресса. Согласно национальной дорожной карте по улавливанию углерода, обнародованной в конце прошлого года, по всей стране было введено в эксплуатацию 126 проектов CCUS — на 77 больше, чем в 2020 году.
— По данным Министерства экологии и охраны окружающей среды, Китай намерен укрепить свою национальную сеть мониторинга поверхностных вод в период 15-й пятилетки (2026–2030 гг.), включив в систему мониторинга более 200 притоков и малых водоемов. Эта инициатива направлена на обеспечение того, чтобы мониторинг более точно отражал состояние водной среды вблизи мест проживания населения. В стране действует пятиуровневая система контроля качества поверхностных вод.
По состоянию на июнь специалисты по охране окружающей среды обследовали 580 тыс. км береговых линий в семи основных речных бассейнах страны, выявив порядка 360 тыс. дренажных стоков. Более 90% нарушений, связанных с данными стоками, были устранены.
— В пустыне Гоби в Китае (пров. Ганьсу) введена в эксплуатацию уникальная солнечная электростанция: более 20 тыс. зеркал – гелиостатов концентрируют солнечный свет на 200-метровом приёмнике, нагревая расплавленную соль. Система позволяет накапливать энергию и затем вырабатывать электроэнергию.
— Sinopec объявила о новом важном событии в развитии водородного транспорта: три водородных автомобиля разных моделей успешно преодолели 1500-километровый путь от станции в Шанхае. Маршрут пролегал вдоль реки Янцзы через пять провинций — Шанхай, Цзянсу, Аньхой, Цзянси и Хубэй, где автомобили смогли заправиться на шести водородных станциях Sinopec.
На сегодняшний день Sinopec запустила пять междугородних водородных коридоров: Пекин-Тяньцзинь, Чэнду-Чунцин, Шанхай-Цзясин-Нинбо, Цзинань-Циндао и Ухань-Ичан.
— Разработанная в Китае воздушная электростанция, использующая энергию ветра, успешно прошла тестовые испытания в Синьцзян-Уйгурском АР. Агрегат похож на аэростат, в котором установлены 12 турбогенераторных установок. Трос одновременно служит кабелем для передачи вырабатываемой энергии на землю.
Report details climate change progress, as well as challenges
Source: China Daily
Date: Sept, 11
The latest report on the state of China’s climate response was submitted for review to Chinese lawmakers. The report, compiled by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, details the progress the country has made in climate change response, as well as its efforts to achieve peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality.
China has developed the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system, has built the world’s largest and most comprehensive new energy industrial chain and has contributed a quarter of the world’s new green areas. However, growing energy demand presents challenges to climate governance, necessitating a more complete legal system, optimized energy structure and global cooperation, according to the report.
«China is on track to meet its 2030 nationally determined contributions targets for reducing carbon intensity and increasing nonfossil energy consumption. It has already surpassed its 2030 nationally determined contributions targets ahead of schedule for wind and solar power capacity, as well as forest stock volume,» said Huang Runqiu, minister of ecology and environment, while elaborating on the report submitted to the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature.
Nationally determined contributions are climate action plans and targets set by countries under the Paris Agreement to address global climate change, which include China’s dual carbon goals to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
The report said China has made significant progress in its energy and industrial transition. By June, China’s installed capacity of nonfossil energy reached 2.22 billion kilowatts, making up 60.9 percent of the total capacity.
The production of photovoltaic modules is 3.7 times higher than it was at the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), and lithium battery production is 6.4 times higher. China has also led the world in the production and sales of new energy vehicles for 10 consecutive years, the report added.
There are over 6,000 national-level green factories in China, whose output value accounts for around 20 percent of the total output in the manufacturing sector, it added.
Ma Jun, founding director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, emphasized that China’s commitments and achievements in combating climate change are significant, particularly in the new energy sector. However, he noted that the advent and development of artificial intelligence present a double-edged sword in pursuing the dual carbon goals.
«The rapid development of artificial intelligence has led to the establishment of numerous data centers, which require high energy consumption. Currently, the scale and stability of renewable energy are insufficient to support this demand,» he said. «To avoid falling behind in international AI competition and to ensure the security of national strategic technologies, even some major Western tech companies that had previously committed to using low-carbon renewable energy are now weakening these commitments and returning to traditional fossil fuels.»
Despite these challenges, Ma highlighted that AI also offers solutions in the medium and long term. These include optimizing weather forecasts for wind, solar and water energy, establishing virtual power plants and providing smart minigrid solutions.
Wei Ke, a researcher from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also warned of the challenges of global warming in green transition.
«Global warming has led to more frequent and intense extreme weather events. This situation poses challenges for maintaining a stable power grid, as extreme heat waves can cause a sharp increase in power demand,» he said.
He added that this underscores the need for the establishment of a multilevel unified electricity market system and the construction of a smart grid system, which can intelligently allocate renewable energy across the country.
Gong Kai, Party secretary of North China Electric Power University’s School of New Energy, said future energy consumption will exhibit a significant trend of sustained increasing demand and an accelerated transition toward low-carbon energy structures.
«Energy systems are expected to shift rapidly toward dominance by renewable energy sources, with low-carbon options such as natural gas and nuclear power playing critical supporting roles,» he said, adding that this transition requires technological advancements and global sharing of these technologies.
New law strengthens China’s atomic energy oversight
Source: China Daily
Date: Sept, 12
A law aimed at promoting the development of atomic energy and ensuring its safe use was adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, as it closed its latest session.
The 62-article law will take effect on Jan 15.
It is a comprehensive and foundational piece of legislation in the field of atomic energy in China, marking a milestone in the development of the legal and regulatory framework for the sector, according to a statement from the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission.
China previously enacted and implemented laws on radioactive pollution prevention and control and nuclear safety, along with a number of administrative regulations and departmental rules in the atomic energy field, initially establishing a legal and regulatory framework, the statement said.
As a responsible major country, China has also ratified several international conventions in the atomic energy field and undertaken international obligations. «The new law is to improve the legal systems and measures in the atomic energy field, align them with existing laws, and translate our country’s international obligations in areas such as nuclear safety and nonproliferation into domestic legal requirements,» it said.
«The new law will contribute to building a comprehensive and well-structured legal and regulatory framework for atomic energy, further enhancing the modernization of the energy governance system and governance capability,» it added.
The statement also underscored that the principle of «peaceful use» is a key tenet throughout the new law. In sections regarding scientific research, the nuclear fuel cycle, utilization, and safety, the law emphasizes advancing high-quality economic development and enhancing public welfare through peaceful applications of atomic energy.
Additionally, the law calls for active, safe, and orderly development of atomic energy, supporting the use of nuclear reactors for heating, desalination, and hydrogen production, as well as the application of isotopes and radiation devices in agriculture, biology, healthcare, and environmental protection.
China has built world’s largest environment monitoring network, says minister
Source: China Daily
Date: Sept, 19
China has established the world’s largest ecological and environmental monitoring network, increasingly supported with advanced technologies, Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu said on Friday.
At a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office, Huang disclosed that the number of monitoring stations the ministry directly oversees across the country stands at over 33,000. These facilities have covered all prefecture-level cities and above, key river basins, and sea areas, monitoring a wide range of elements including water, air, soil, oceans, ecosystems, and noise, he continued.
The minister also noted significant strides in making the monitoring network more digital and intelligent by integrating advanced technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. «As China advances its pollution control efforts and the Beautiful China initiative, demand has grown for more accurate, comprehensive and timely monitoring data,» he said.
Against this backdrop, he said the ministry must urgently transition its primary methods of sampling, analysis, operation and maintenance in environmental monitoring from manual approaches to automated, digital and intelligent ones.
The country has managed to achieve full-process automation in environmental monitoring procedures such as sampling, sample delivery and analytical testing, he disclosed.
In the monitoring work for surface water, for instance, the use of drones for automated sample collection reduces the time required by over 70 percent, he said, adding such an application has unique advantages, particularly in remote areas.
He said that in the analytical testing phase, there have been laboratories that can perform automated, continuous analysis and testing without human intervention even in complete darkness, increasing efficiency by more than eightfold compared to manual operations.
The country’s air and water monitoring network is slated for a smart overhaul of its operational diagnostics and maintenance, Huang continued. After being upgraded, he said the frequency of maintenance for such facilities will be reduced from once per week to once per month, cutting manual involvement by over 70 percent.
He revealed that the intelligent transformation has been underway in 143 air automatic monitoring stations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
He went on to highlight the rapidly accelerating use of AI in environmental monitoring. The ministry has established ecological environment spectrum databases and sound signature libraries in its efforts to leverage AI to accurately pinpoint the sources of environmental problems. He said with the help of sound recognition AI technology, for example, noise sources can be rapidly identified — whether they originate from construction, transportation or social activities. This enables more targeted and efficient supervision, allowing public noise pollution concerns to be addressed more effectively, he said.
China targets 180 GW of new energy storage by 2027 in ambitious national plan
Source: China Daily
Date: Sept, 19
China aims to add more than 100 GW of new energy storage (primarily battery storage, excluding pumped hydro) by 2027, according to a new action plan presented by authorities on Friday.
The “Special Action Plan for Large-Scale Construction of New Energy Storage (2025-2027)” released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) outlines a roadmap to scale up energy storage to support the country’s rapidly expanding renewable energy capacity. The plan is expected to drive CNY 250 billion yuan (approximately $35 billion) in sector investment over three years.
China has already outpaced its previous targets. The country reached its 2025 goal of 30 GW two years early and saw explosive growth in 2024 alone, adding 37 GW / 91 GWh of new energy storage – more than doubling total capacity year-on-year. As of June 2025, China’s new energy storage fleet had surpassed 100 GW, overtaking the pumped hydro additions for the first time, according to data from the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA).
The new action plan, grounded in the nation’s dual carbon goals, aims to grow the national new energy storage fleet to 180 GW by 2027. It responds to the urgent need for flexible energy regulation amid rapid renewable energy expansion. Officials from the National Energy Administration emphasized that energy storage is now essential for stabilizing the power system and meeting growing electricity demands.
The plan also comes at a critical moment. Earlier this year, China scrapped a national energy storage mandate – a policy that had previously driven as much as 75% of the country’s storage deployment. Introduced in 2022, the mandate required most new solar and wind projects to include co-located storage. Over 20 provinces implemented their own mandates, with some increasing their required storage ratios from 10% to as high as 20%.
The new plan envisages a more comprehensive and market-oriented approch to scaling up new energy storage. The plan outlines strategies for expanding application scenarios and improving the utilization efficiency of storage systems. It also aims to promote application of innovative projects and strengthen the development of a comprehensive standardization system.
Finally, the plan seeks to imrpove market mechanisms for the new energy storage by promoting their participation in the wholesale and anciliary service markets and accelerating the development of a dedicated pricing mechanism.
Application scenarios and market mechanisms
The Action Plan considers the needs of building a new power system and focuses on three main areas: the power supply side, the grid side, and other emerging application scenarios.
On the power supply side, the focus is on large-scale base energy storage, integration with new energy sources, and support for coal-fired power plants. These measures aim to improve the ability of coal plants to adjust output and enhance the overall grid integration of renewable energy.
On the grid side, the emphasis is on deploying storage at key grid nodes and within distribution networks. The plan encourages the development of energy storage facilities that can serve as alternatives to traditional grid infrastructure, as well as broader use of grid-based storage solutions.
For other applications, the plan targets fast-growing areas such as industrial parks, data centers, distributed solar systems, and telecom base stations. Innovative storage models will be promoted to improve energy efficiency and support stable power supply in these scenarios.
To support the integration of new energy storage into a unified national electricity market, the Action Plan calls for accelerating the development of market mechanisms. Key measures include:
Promoting the joint participation of “new energy + energy storage” in electricity market transactions as a single bidding entity.
Encouraging regions to develop auxiliary services – such as ramping and inertia support – based on local power system needs.
Improving capacity pricing mechanisms to better reflect the value of regulatory resources like energy storage.
In addition, the Plan urges all regions to speed up the development of medium- and long-term electricity markets as well as spot markets. It also calls for market price formation mechanisms to ensure that the pricing of energy storage charging and discharging is fair and market-driven.
Looking ahead, the NEA will guide provincial and regional energy authorities to follow national planning guidelines, accurately assess their local regulatory capacity needs, and clearly define the scale and layout of new energy storage and other flexibility resources.
China releases New-type Energy Storage Technology Development Roadmap (2025-2035)
Source: Bastille Post Global
Date: Sept, 19
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released the New-type Energy Storage Technology Development Roadmap (2025-2035) at the main forum of the World Energy Storage Conference 2025, providing guidance and reference for further promoting high-quality industrial development and high-level industrial security.
This roadmap focuses on five key subfields: electrochemical energy storage, mechanical energy storage, electromagnetic energy storage, cold thermal energy storage, and hydrogen storage. It outlines key products, essential materials and components, as well as development goals for various fields leading up to 2035.
«From a national perspective, the roadmap systematically evaluates the development status of different technology industrial chains. On the enterprise level, it also presents specific indicators for product development and outlines future development direction,» said Zhang Yanli, associate researcher at the Equipment Industry Development Center of the MIIT.
Currently, the country’s new-type energy storage technologies are developing rapidly, with a surge of innovative achievements emerging.
A newly released energy storage system in China is the world’s first to achieve zero degradation over five years and can be mass-produced on a large scale. It boasts a storage capacity of 6.25 megawatt-hours (MWh) of high energy within a single 20-foot container, with energy density increased by 30 percent.
Meanwhile, the application scenarios for new technologies are also continuously expanding. At present, Shanghai’s Mingdong Container Terminal, a key hub for global trade, is undergoing new energy transformation of fuel equipment.
«Custom battery packs have been specifically developed, featuring an electrophoretic powder coating and painting process on the battery housing, making them fully capable of withstanding the high-salinity and high-humidity environment of the port,» said Zhou Gong, product engineer at China’s CATL, the world’s largest battery maker.
In the first half of this year, the country’s installed capacity of new-type energy storage had reached 94.91 million kilowatts, representing an increase of approximately 29 percent compared to the end of 2024.
China’s lead in renewable energy a boon to world
Source: China Daily
Date: Sept, 24
China’s dominance in renewable energy production is driving down costs and accelerating global deployment, making clean energy more affordable worldwide, said industry experts and company executives.
The scale of China’s new renewable capacity has made renewable energy affordable worldwide, said Ilina Radoslavova Stefanova, head of coalition for action, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
«China plays a pivotal role in the global clean energy supply chain, particularly in solar PV modules, battery cells, and balance-of-system components. This scale has enabled learning curve effects that have driven down costs and accelerated global deployment,» she said.
According to Stefanova, in 2024 alone, the world added approximately 582 gigawatts of new renewable capacity, with China contributing nearly 370 GW, representing over 60 percent of the global total.
This massive contribution primarily comes from solar photovoltaic and wind energy, highlighting China’s leadership in these key renewable technologies, she said.
«China shows what’s possible when policy, scale and speed align. The government’s commitment to advance renewables is shown through its enabling policies and regulation.»
The global energy storage market is experiencing explosive growth driven by technological advancements and rapidly declining costs, according to a report released by IRENA at the World Energy Storage Conference in Ningde, Fujian province, recently.
The report underscores the pivotal role of energy storage in facilitating the transition to a sustainable energy future, highlighting that the combination of solar power and energy storage is increasingly becoming the most economical green energy solution, more economical than the solution of coal+CCUS, or carbon capture, utilization and storage.
This shift signifies a fundamental change in the economics of energy production, with renewable sources coupled with storage becoming increasingly competitive against traditional fossil fuel-based power generation, it said.
«Energy storage is a key technology for smoothing the intermittency and volatility of renewable energy sources, and is an important means of meeting the flexibility adjustment needs of the power grid during the energy transition,» said Meng Xiangfeng, vice-president of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, at the conference.
CATL, a major battery company, collaborated with IRENA on the report, providing valuable insights into the technological advancements and cost reductions driving the energy storage revolution.
«To effectively integrate renewable energy sources, energy storage is essential for managing their inconsistent output. This technology plays a vital role in ensuring that the power grid can adapt to the changing energy landscape by providing flexibility,» he said.
«Currently, with the iterative upgrading of technology, energy storage costs are rapidly declining, and the global energy storage market is experiencing explosive growth.»
By the end of 2024, the cumulative installed capacity of new energy storage projects worldwide reached approximately 180 GW, nearly double the figure at the end of 2023 — approximately 90 GW.
Among these, China’s newly installed capacity in 2024 reached 42.37 GW, accounting for 47 percent of the global increase, making it a leading force in the global energy storage industry.
The IRENA report, the agency’s first dedicated to energy storage, notes that lithium-ion battery storage is progressively extending its response time to four-eight hours or even longer, positioning it as a crucial technology for energy storage of longer duration to meet the grid’s need for flexible regulation over extended periods.
This extended duration capability is essential for ensuring grid stability and reliability as renewable energy sources become a larger part of the energy mix, it said.
The report urges countries to integrate energy storage into their top-level grid planning and design. It also recommends improving electricity market rules and mechanisms to expand revenue channels for energy storage in peak shaving, ancillary services, and capacity support.
These recommendations aim to create a more favorable regulatory and economic environment for energy storage deployment, encouraging investment and innovation in the sector, said Stefanova.
Nation leads in global greenery expansion
Source: China Daily
Date: Sept, 11
China has increased forest coverage to over 25 percent — representing a quarter of the world’s new green areas — and is leading global environmental restoration while promoting economic growth, senior officials said at a news conference.
Liu Guohong, director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office that over the past five years, China has greened 36.6 million hectares of land, including 12.33 million hectares of new forests, an area comparable to the size of Fujian province.
«China has seen the most and fastest increase in greenery in the world,» he said.
The public has greatly benefited from the growth of the forestry and grassland industry, he added. For example, in 2024, the booming bamboo industry in Anji county, Zhejiang province, boosted incomes for nearly 40,000 local bamboo farmers.
Also last year, the forestry and grassland industry’s output value surpassed 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion), creating jobs for over 60 million people. Meanwhile, the forest ranger workforce nationwide remained at over 1.7 million.
Minister of Natural Resources Guan Zhiou said at the news conference that China is managing natural landscapes as a whole, including mountains, waters and forests.
The nation has developed a large-scale protection system from the mountains to the seas, carrying out projects such as the rehabilitation of abandoned mines, the restoration of coastlines and coastal wetlands, and the expansion of mangrove areas.
«China has become one of the few countries in the world to have a net increase in mangrove areas,» Guan said.
The country has also made strides in creating national parks.
In 2021, China announced the official openings of its first five national parks: the Three-River-Source National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park and Wuyishan National Park. Liu said these parks have since integrated over 120 nature reserves, which has helped improve the variety and health of ecosystems.
He said that over the past five years, the Three-River-Source National Park has provided a 50 percent increase of water to downstream waterways.
In the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the number of wild tigers increased from 27 in 2017 — the park’s trial period — to about 70 in 2025, and the number of leopards grew from 42 to roughly 80 during the same period.
And the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park has seen an increase in the number of Hainan gibbons, making it the only continuously growing population among the world’s gibbons.
The national parks initiative emphasizes environmental protection alongside livelihood improvement, Liu said.
Nearly 50,000 people have found jobs related to the parks close to home, with each person earning an annual salary of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, he said.
Since their official openings, the Wuyishan National Park’s eco-friendly tea gardens have boosted the tea industry’s value to 15 billion yuan, and the Giant Panda and Hainan Tropical Rainforest parks have served as nature education platforms, he said.
Commitment to global climate action resolute
Source: China Daily
Date: Sept, 26
In an address to the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, President Xi Jinping reaffirmed China’s unwavering commitment to climate action.
Delivered via video, Xi’s speech comes at a critical moment. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement — a crucial year for nations to update their Nationally Determined Contributions as global climate governance enters a decisive phase.
Announcing China’s ambitious new NDCs, Xi said that these targets represent China’s best efforts based on the requirements of the Paris Agreement, and meeting these targets will require painstaking efforts by the country itself as well as a supportive and open international environment.
Saying that the green and low carbon transition is «the trend of our time», he urged the international community to «stay focused in the right direction» despite some countries «acting against it».
China has consistently prioritized and actively participated in global climate governance. The country has previously pledged to peak its carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. But the 2035 goals announced by Xi mark a new stage in China’s climate policy. The goals include reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10 percent from peak levels; increasing the share of nonfossil fuels in energy consumption to over 30 percent; and expanding the installed capacity of wind and solar power to over six times the 2020 levels. They represent a shift from controlling incremental increases to decreasing the existing levels of green house gas emissions. This shift is backed by other commitments such as drastically expanding forests, making new energy vehicles the mainstream in the sales of new cars, and basically establishing a climate adaptive society.
As President Xi said, China has the resolve and confidence to deliver on these commitments and it will be «striving to do better».
The Paris Agreement of 2015 aims to limit global warming to «well below» 2 C above preindustrial levels by the end of the century, and «pursue efforts» to keep warming within the safer limit of 1.5 C for the world to avoid the worst climate catastrophes. Under the pact, countries must update their NDCs every five years as they seek to reduce emissions.
By presenting its emissions reduction target well ahead of the 30th UN climate conference, or COP30, to be held in Belem, Brazil, in November, China, as a responsible major country, has signaled its firm commitment to the international climate change control process while sending a positive message to the world about its transition to green and low-carbon development.
China’s stepping up its climate efforts is both timely and inspiring for the global fight against climate change, especially given the United States is in the process of withdrawing from the Paris accord for a second time. The US president went so far as to call climate change a «con job» at a recent UN meeting.
Thanks largely to China’s persistent efforts to promote a low-carbon economy, along with those of others, progress has been made in limiting the global temperature increase. «In the last 10 years, the projected global temperature rise has dropped from four degrees Celsius to less than three,» UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
China has been accelerating its comprehensive green transformation and, as a result, only half of the country’s electricity mix comes from coal, as compared to three-quarters a decade ago. China has also established preliminary advantages in several key green sectors, with more than 80 percent of the world’s solar panels and 70 percent of wind power equipment coming from the country. Its booming exports of solar panels, batteries and electric cars are helping cut emissions in many other countries as well.
Yellow River maintains good water quality for 3 consecutive years
Source: China Daily
Date: Aug, 21
For the third successive year, the water quality in the main stream of China’s Yellow River has reached a level clean enough to be drinkable after conventional treatment, marking a significant environmental milestone for the nation’s second-longest river.
According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the water quality of the Yellow River’s main stream has remained stable at Grade II in the country’s five-tier water quality system for three consecutive years since it first met this standard in 2022. A rating of Grade II is considered good.
Data shows that the proportion of water in the entire Yellow River basin with fairly good surface water quality, at or above Grade III, has increased from 66.4 percent in 2018 to over 90 percent currently. Furthermore, this high standard has been maintained for two straight years since 2023.
Additionally, the share of surface water below Grade V, the lowest level, has dropped from 12.4 percent to zero.
«Water quality in the Yellow River continues to improve. From January to August this year, the main stream has consistently maintained Grade II water quality,» said Fan Zhihui, director of the ecological and environmental supervision and administration bureau of the Yellow River Basin.
This represents a major phased achievement since ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin were elevated to a national strategy — marking a new stage of normalized and stable improvement in the river’s water quality, local authorities said.
The Yellow River, known as China’s «Mother River,» serves as a critical drinking water source for residents in over 50 medium and large cities and more than 400 counties within its basin. From the 1990s to the early 2000s, however, the river suffered severe pollution, with nearly 70 percent of urban drinking water sources along its main stream failing to meet safety standards.
«Today, this situation has been completely reversed,» said Wang Ruiling, an official with the bureau. «The Yellow River now consistently provides a stable and high-quality drinking water source for cities across its basin.»
In recent years, China has established a comprehensive framework for the protection and governance of the Yellow River. All provincial-level authorities along the river have joined efforts to implement extensive conservation measures, coordinate large-scale management initiatives, and launch campaigns to address key challenges.
Authorities have established a coordinated supervision and management mechanism — conducting joint law enforcement operations in areas with water quality fluctuations. This initiative has driven progress in resolving numerous critical ecological and environmental issues across the basin.
In 2024 alone, five major joint operations were carried out in key zones of the watershed, securing the hard-won achievement of maintaining Grade II water quality standards in the river’s main course.
Notably, improvement in the Yellow River’s water quality has driven ecological changes along its course. In the early 2000s, about one-third of its native aquatic species had disappeared, while today benthic organisms have increased from 38 to over 130 species.
Meanwhile, since 2012, the nine provincial-level regions along the Yellow River have achieved a 126-percent increase in their combined GDP.
Key environmental indicators have also shown remarkable improvements in this region — water consumption per 10,000 yuan (about 1,406.77 U.S. dollars) of GDP has dropped by 55 percent, energy intensity is down by 44 percent, carbon emissions have been cut by 43 percent, and ammonia nitrogen emissions have been slashed by a remarkable 84.6 percent.
«The clearer and cleaner water of the Yellow River now acts like a mirror — reflecting the basin’s transition toward a green, low-carbon and sustainable high-quality development model,» Fan said.
Large-scale carbon capture, utilization, storage site established in North China
Source: China Daily
Date: Aug, 11
The carbon capture, utilization and storage project of the Bayan Oilfield, located in Bayannur in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, has injected over 70,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into oil reservoirs.
This marks the establishment of a large-scale CO2 utilization and storage base in Inner Mongolia, according to the Bayannur municipal government.
The Bayan Oilfield has over 300 production wells with deep crude oil deposits. It has long utilized a water-flooding method for oil recovery — injecting water into oil reservoirs to push oil toward production wells. Its recovery rate using this method is about 20 percent.
To conserve water and reduce carbon emissions, the oilfield began exploring the use of CO2 for oil recovery in 2020. Through its CCUS project, the company has increased its oil recovery rate to approximately 45 percent, according to Yang Xuesong, the chief geologist of the Bayan Exploration and Development Branch of PetroChina Huabei Oilfield Company.
CCUS represents an emerging technological approach to the efficient, low-carbon development of fossil energy. A technological countermeasure to global warming, CCUS stores or utilizes captured CO2, thereby reducing carbon emissions. China has committed to peaking its carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.
In recent years, China’s CCUS technology has seen remarkable progress. According to a national carbon-capture roadmap unveiled late last year, 126 CCUS projects had been put into operation across the country — 77 more than in 2020.
In May, China’s first offshore CCUS project began operations in the Pearl River Mouth Basin in the south of the country. The project, based on the Enping 15-1 platform, captures CO2 produced during oil development, purifies and pressurizes it into a supercritical state, and then injects it into underground oil reservoirs. The approach drives increased oil production and achieves carbon sequestration.
China to bolster national surface water monitoring network
Source: China Daily
Date: Aug, 26
China intends to strengthen its national surface water monitoring network during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) by bringing over 200 tributaries and small water bodies under coverage, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
The initiative aims to ensure that monitoring efforts better reflect the conditions of water environment near the public, said Jiang Huohua, head of the ministry’s department of water ecology and environment at a news conference on Tuesday.
The move comes as the country has witnessed consistent improvement in the quality of surface water, but there remain many water pollution problems that affect people’s life, according to the official.
Following improvement over 10 consecutive years, the proportion of surface water with quality at or above Grade III reached 90.4 percent in 2024, compared to 64.5 percent in 2015, he said, adding that further improvement is anticipated this year.
The country has a five-tier quality system for surface water, with Grade I being the best.
Jiang attributes the achievement to a series of measures that have been rolled out across the country.
As of June, environmental officials have surveyed 580,000 kilometers of shorelines across the country’s seven major river basins, identifying 360,000 drainage outlets. Over 90 percent of the violations associated with these outlets have been rectified, Jiang disclosed.
The ministry has also intensified efforts to promote the construction of concentrated sewage treatment facilities in major industrial parks, particularly in the basins of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, he noted.
To date, 2,700 sewage treatment plants have been built and 3,500 problems concerning inadequate sewage pipe networks and malfunctions have been addressed.
Jiang stressed, however, that the overall improvement does not necessarily mean that all water pollution problems at people’s doorstep have been effectively addressed.
He said he has recently observed online water pollution complaints from many areas, with some leading to the death of trees, fish and shrimps. Some of them have drawn widespread public attention.
«This reminds us that the protection of the aquatic ecological environment should not only focus on metrics and data, but also on the feelings and voices of the people,» he said.
World’s first dual-tower solar thermal plant lights up in China’s Gobi Desert
Source: CGTN
Date: Oct, 1
China has commissioned the west tower of the world’s first dual-tower, single-generator solar thermal power plant in Guazhou, northwest China’s Gansu Province. More than 20,000 heliostats now concentrate sunlight onto a 200-meter-high receiver, heating molten salt from solid to liquid at over 200 degrees Celsius. The system can store heat at temperatures of up to 570 degrees Celsius, several times more efficiently than water, enabling it to generate clean electricity even after sunset.
Source: Prnewswire
Date: Sep, 28
On September 25, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation announced a new milestone in hydrogen mobility at the High-quality Development Promotion Conference for Modern Industrial Chain of Hydrogen Energy Application hosted by Sinopec in Nanjing. Three hydrogen-powered logistics vehicles of different models successfully completed a 1,500-kilometer journey from the Qingwei Integrated Energy Station in Qingpu District, Shanghai. The route followed the Yangtze River through five provinces and municipalities—Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Hubei—before the vehicles arrived at the Zhijiang Service Area South Station in Yichang, Hubei, refueling at six Sinopec hydrogen stations along the way.
The journey marked another milestone for Sinopec. It follows earlier long-distance, cross-regional hydrogen logistics tests along two hydrogen corridors, the Beijing-Shanghai Corridor and the Western Land-Sea Corridor, built on Sinopec’s extensive energy station network. To date, Sinopec has launched five intercity hydrogen corridors: Beijing-Tianjin, Chengdu-Chongqing, Shanghai-Jiaxing-Ningbo, Jinan-Qingdao and Wuhan-Yichang.
To further integrate hydrogen mobility across eastern and western regions, Sinopec has connected the Shanghai-Jiaxing-Ningbo and Wuhan-Yichang intercity corridors through the Yangtze River hydrogen corridor. The company also plans to extend the network to the Chengdu-Chongqing corridor, fully establishing the Yangtze River hydrogen axis and enabling more hydrogen-powered vehicles to travel on highways with confidence.
Sinopec continues to position itself as China’s leading hydrogen enterprise. It now has an annual hydrogen production capacity of 4.45 million tons. The company also operates the nation’s first industrial-scale seawater-to-hydrogen project at Qingdao Refinery, along with a 100 kW solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) pilot at Zhongyuan Oilfield.
The 30,000-ton per year Ordos integrated wind-solar hydrogen project in Inner Mongolia supplies hydrogen for coal chemical decarbonization. Meanwhile, the 100,000-ton per year Ulanqab integrated wind-solar hydrogen project will deliver China’s first large-scale, cross-provincial, long-distance pure hydrogen pipeline.
In hydrogen mobility, Sinopec now operates 146 hydrogen stations and 11 supply centers. These cover all «3+2» hydrogen fuel cell pilot city clusters, making Sinopec the world’s largest hydrogen station operator.
Looking ahead, Sinopec will align with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) through its ‘Hydrogen Highway’ initiative. The company will leverage its national hydrogen corridors to build refueling networks along highways, activate the hydrogen economy, and pioneer sustainable business models to drive high-quality growth of the industry.
China tests buoyant turbine to harvest wind energy in sky
Source: China Daily
Date: Sep, 23
China’s home-designed buoyant airborne turbine has successfully completed its maiden flight in Hami, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, after passing rigorous tests including full desert assembly and continuous high-wind deployment and retrieval.
The S1500, a Zeppelin-like megawatt-scale commercial power system that harvests energy in the sky, measures 60 meters long, 40 meters wide and 40 meters tall, making it by far the largest floating wind-power generator ever built, according to Beijing SAWES Energy Technology Co., Ltd., one of the developers of the airship.
The S1500’s main airfoil and annular wing together form a giant duct that houses 12 turbine-generator sets, each rated at 100 kW. Harnessing the steady high-altitude jet stream, the rotors convert wind into electricity, which is then transmitted reliably to the ground through the tether cable.
Unlike conventional land-based turbines, airborne wind systems require no massive tower or deep foundation, cutting material use by 40 percent and the electricity cost by 30 percent. Entire units can be relocated within hours, making them ideal for unlocking renewable power in deserts, islands and mining lots.
The airship is developed by SAWES in collaboration with Chinese institutes, including Tsinghua University and the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They mastered the challenging know-how of aerostat stability, ultra-light generators and kilometer-scale high-voltage power tethers.
In October 2024, the helium-filled S500 blimp ascended to 500 meters above ground in central China’s Hubei Province, generating power at a rate of over 50 kW. Three months later, the S1000 reached 1,000 meters, doubling the output to 100 kW.
Designed for disaster relief, rapid mapping and urban security, the airborne platform can be launched quickly after an earthquake or flood to keep lights, radios and life-saving equipment running, explained Weng Hanke, chief technology officer of SAWES.
The winds that blow steadily between 500 and 10,000 meters above the ground represent one of the last great untapped sources of energy on Earth, abundant, widely available and entirely carbon-free.
These winds are much stronger and steadier, often several times those at ground level. Since turbine power scales with the cube of wind speed, the sky holds an immense, untapped energy reservoir.
«When wind speed doubles, the energy it carries increases eightfold, triple the speed, and you have 27 times the energy,» Gong Zeqi, a researcher from the AIR, said.
An action plan for 2016 to 2030 issued by the National Development and Reform Commission calls for research and development on key technologies for large-scale high-altitude wind-power generators.
