Grid Snarls Pose Challenge to China’s Massive Desert Energy Push

(Bloomberg) -- China’s ambition of delivering the world’s largest clean energy deployment in remote deserts and interior regions will face challenges without more focus on boosting grid capacity, according to an official in a key region for the developments.

“Existing power passageways will not fulfill the demand” from the massive additions of solar and wind generation, Luo Qing, head of the Xilingol League region of Inner Mongolia said Wednesday at a provincial delegation meeting during China’s National People’s Congress. “I plead more attention and support from the national level.”

President Xi Jinping in 2021 outlined plans to add a total of 455 gigawatts of turbines and panels — more than currently installed in any country outside China — in a network of projects, mainly across interior areas of regions including Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Qinghai. 

A first phase of the strategy was largely completed last year and is able to utilize existing ultra-high voltage lines to transport electricity from inland sites to power-hungry urban centers in central and eastern China. In the next phase of the roll-out, about 235 gigawatts of projects will require entirely new UHV lines, BloombergNEF analysts including Xiangyu Chen said in a December report.

“If UHV lines are not commissioned in time, the progress of the second and third batch megabase projects will also be delayed,” the analysts said.

Though some new UHV lines are under construction, more infrastructure spending is required to ensure future renewable projects can be fully utilized, Luo said.

The pace at which transmission infrastructure is being built will likely act as a limit on the expansion of China’s overall renewable growth this year. Solar capacity additions more than doubled in 2023 to a record 216 gigawatts, and are forecast to stay at about the same level this year as a result of constraints on land and grid availability.

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