{"id":60081382,"date":"2025-05-19T14:46:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60081382"},"modified":"2025-05-29T15:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T14:24:13","slug":"analysis-how-chinas-renewables-can-meet-electricity-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/energy\/analysis-how-chinas-renewables-can-meet-electricity-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: How China\u2019s renewables can meet electricity demand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than half of the global growth in last year\u2019s electricity demand came from China, a recent International Energy Agency (IEA) report found<\/a>. This growth was driven by a combination of factors, but the largest contributor was industry. This sector accounts for about 60%<\/a> of China\u2019s electricity demand.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One-third of China\u2019s industrial demand growth has come from producing the \u201cnew three\u201d \u2013 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, batteries and electric vehicles (EVs). In the next three years, growing air-conditioning ownership, demand for EV charging, data centres and the rollout of 5G are also expected to push up electricity consumption, the IEA found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this has implications for carbon emissions. Although the share of coal power in China\u2019s electricity generation has been declining<\/a> since 2007, growth in renewable energy has not kept pace with that of electricity demand. Put simply, renewables have been adding to rather than replacing coal power capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to this, China has recently unveiled a policy requiring some companies in energy-intensive industries to use renewable power for a portion of their consumption. Below, we examine how the new three came to contribute so strongly to electricity consumption growth, and how companies have been attempting to comply and engage with the new policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electricity demand growth exceeds GDP growth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s electricity demand has been growing faster than its GDP since 2020. Growth was particularly high in 2023 and 2024, when it averaged 7% per year<\/a>, against GDP growth of about 5%<\/a>. Between 2020-2023, power use in traditional energy-intensive sectors, such as nonferrous metals and building materials, grew faster<\/a> than the value they added to the economy. The rapidly expanding new three industries are similarly electricity-hungry. Add in the broader shift toward electrifying transport and other industrial processes, and the result is a grid whose load is increasing well ahead of overall economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China stands out among major economies in this regard, observes Zou Yining, a research associate at Agora Energy China. While the economy has grown in the US, power demand has remained relatively stable over the past 20 years, though the boost from emerging industries such as battery production and data centres is forecast to increase consumption<\/a> by 2% a year from 2024-2026. Meanwhile, Germany\u2019s electricity consumption has been falling<\/a> since 2021 despite modest economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n