4 The Transition of China’s Power System
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kW in the northeastern region; 17.5% or 5.31 million kW in east China; 11.6% or
3.48 million kW in central China; 21.6% or 6.49 million kW in the northwestern
region; and 15.7% or 4.72 million kW in southern China.
In 2019, the installed capacity of PV is mainly found in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu,
Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui
and Zhejiang, where the PV capacity has either exceeded or is approaching 10 million
KW. Among them, Shandong (16.19 million kW), Jiangsu (14.86 million kW), and
Hebei (14.74 million kW) topped the chart.
In 2019, solar power generation by photovoltaics nationwide totalled 224.3 billion
kWh, up 26.3% year-on-year. The average number of hours of utilization of PV
systems stood at 1169 h, an increase of 54 h year-on-year. The national solar curtailment rate fell by 1 percentage point to 2%, tallying to a total of 4.6 billion kWh
of electricity curtailed. A closer examination of the various regions reveals that the
challenge of curtailment is most acute in the northwestern region, which accounted
for 87% of nationwide curtailment in 2019 in spite of a 2.3 percentage point drop
in curtailment to 5.9%. The rate of curtailment in north, northeast and south China
stood at 0.8%, 0.4%, and 0.2%, respectively. No solar curtailment occurred in central
and east China. Parsing the data further at the provincial level, the curtailment rate in
Tibet, Xinjiang and Gansu declined 19.5%, 8.2%, and 5.6% year-on-year to 24.1%,
7.4%, and 4.0%, respectively. Due to such factors as a notable increase in solar installations and a drop in load, Qinghai saw its curtailment rate rise to 7.2%, up 2.5%
year-on-year.
Photothermal power generation is also called solar thermal power (STP) generation. Solar thermal power plants are generally composed of three subsystems: solar
heat collection, heat storage and power generation. Heat storage gives STP systems
the advantages of stable output and adjustability compared to PV power generation. In addition, the heat storage component can be integrated with other circulation
systems to improve energy efficiency (Du et al. 2016).
Despite the clear advantages of STP, China remains at the very early stage in
terms of the full-scale development of STP due to technology and cost barriers. The
conditions for building STP plants are rather demanding: strong and direct solar
radiation, a large amount of water and land as well as a flat landscape. Therefore,
current STP plants in China are primarily concentrated in the northwestern and
northern regions where the conditions are suitable. On September 13, 2016, the
National Energy Administration issued a notice on the construction of solar thermal
power generation demonstration projects, which contained a shortlist of 20 demo
STP projects with a total installed capacity of 1.349 million kW to be built in Qinghai,
Gansu, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.
In summary, the curtailment of power generated from renewable facilities, mainly
wind and solar, is most prominent in northwest China. The reasons are three-fold.
First of all, renewables by their very nature are intermittent and volatile, and the power
grids do not have sufficient capacity to adequately peak shave. Second, there is a
mismatch between power generation installations and the construction of infrastructure for the outward transmission of renewable energy. Third, there are weaknesses
in the power grid, and some regions are hobbled by grid constraints.
127
kW in the northeastern region; 17.5% or 5.31 million kW in east China; 11.6% or
3.48 million kW in central China; 21.6% or 6.49 million kW in the northwestern
region; and 15.7% or 4.72 million kW in southern China.
In 2019, the installed capacity of PV is mainly found in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu,
Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui
and Zhejiang, where the PV capacity has either exceeded or is approaching 10 million
KW. Among them, Shandong (16.19 million kW), Jiangsu (14.86 million kW), and
Hebei (14.74 million kW) topped the chart.
In 2019, solar power generation by photovoltaics nationwide totalled 224.3 billion
kWh, up 26.3% year-on-year. The average number of hours of utilization of PV
systems stood at 1169 h, an increase of 54 h year-on-year. The national solar curtailment rate fell by 1 percentage point to 2%, tallying to a total of 4.6 billion kWh
of electricity curtailed. A closer examination of the various regions reveals that the
challenge of curtailment is most acute in the northwestern region, which accounted
for 87% of nationwide curtailment in 2019 in spite of a 2.3 percentage point drop
in curtailment to 5.9%. The rate of curtailment in north, northeast and south China
stood at 0.8%, 0.4%, and 0.2%, respectively. No solar curtailment occurred in central
and east China. Parsing the data further at the provincial level, the curtailment rate in
Tibet, Xinjiang and Gansu declined 19.5%, 8.2%, and 5.6% year-on-year to 24.1%,
7.4%, and 4.0%, respectively. Due to such factors as a notable increase in solar installations and a drop in load, Qinghai saw its curtailment rate rise to 7.2%, up 2.5%
year-on-year.
Photothermal power generation is also called solar thermal power (STP) generation. Solar thermal power plants are generally composed of three subsystems: solar
heat collection, heat storage and power generation. Heat storage gives STP systems
the advantages of stable output and adjustability compared to PV power generation. In addition, the heat storage component can be integrated with other circulation
systems to improve energy efficiency (Du et al. 2016).
Despite the clear advantages of STP, China remains at the very early stage in
terms of the full-scale development of STP due to technology and cost barriers. The
conditions for building STP plants are rather demanding: strong and direct solar
radiation, a large amount of water and land as well as a flat landscape. Therefore,
current STP plants in China are primarily concentrated in the northwestern and
northern regions where the conditions are suitable. On September 13, 2016, the
National Energy Administration issued a notice on the construction of solar thermal
power generation demonstration projects, which contained a shortlist of 20 demo
STP projects with a total installed capacity of 1.349 million kW to be built in Qinghai,
Gansu, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.
In summary, the curtailment of power generated from renewable facilities, mainly
wind and solar, is most prominent in northwest China. The reasons are three-fold.
First of all, renewables by their very nature are intermittent and volatile, and the power
grids do not have sufficient capacity to adequately peak shave. Second, there is a
mismatch between power generation installations and the construction of infrastructure for the outward transmission of renewable energy. Third, there are weaknesses
in the power grid, and some regions are hobbled by grid constraints.