Thread by @chinadialogue

🚨 News Digest: Guizhou to mandate bundling new renewable projects with coal

✍️ Check out this update from our Beijing team

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🔋In a recent policy draft for public comment, Guizhou province makes it official that, in order to get approval, new solar ☀️ and wind 🌬️ projects should be bundled with other regulating power sources.

🔎 Find out more:
guangfu.bjx.com.cn/news/20221114/…

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♻️➕🏭 The "renewable plus coal power" combination will be favoured in the approval process, while standalone renewable projects are unlikely to get the green light.

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🔌 According to China Energy News, since 2021 Guizhou has been promoting the mixing of multiple types of power generation to create a more stable energy supply.

🔎 Read more:
escn.com.cn/news/show-1503…

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As intermittent wind 🌬️ and solar ☀️ energy put pressure on the power system, bundling them with other sources such as hydro 🌊 helps balance things out, facilitating higher renewables uptake by the grid.

🔎 Find out more:
chinadialogue.net/en/energy/does…

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🏭 There is new emphasis on coal as the regulating power source.

🌊 2 severe power shortage episodes in 2021 & 2022, the latest triggered by hydropower failure during an unprecedented drought, has elevated the urgency for strengthening #energysecurity.

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🔋 Coal power’s role as both a reliable back up and a regulating complement to renewables is increasingly recognised by policymakers.

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🤝 The Guizhou draft policy encourages renewable projects to find coal-power partners to form joint applications.

It also makes it clear that only “flexible” coal power is eligible to be included in a bundle.

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🏭Government includes technical specifications in the policy that define the ability for such coal power to quickly ramp up & down in response to regulating needs of the system.

Coal-fired power plants lacking such responsiveness will not be considered in applications.

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🏭 Experts told China Energy News that the requirement will create strong incentives for existing coal-fired power plants in Guizhou to conduct flexibility retrofits.

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🔋 Under the new policy, if renewable energy developers do not bundle with a coal energy developer to get approval, they have an alternative option of adding power storage to their project.

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🔋 The power storage component should be no less than 10% of the project’s total installed capacity.

Given the relatively high cost of battery-based power storage, the option is considered by experts to be less attractive to developers.

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🔎 Read our recent article on the power shortage in Guizhou’s neighbouring province of Sichuan in the summer:

chinadialogue.net/en/energy/chin…

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