China is wasting more and more clean energy as it adds wind turbines and solar panels faster than its grid is able to digest them.
Nearly 12% of power generated by wind turbines in Inner Mongolia this year has been wasted because the grid couldn’t take it, along with 10% of solar power in Qinghai,, citing government data. In sunny and windswept but sparsely populated Gansu province, the utilisation rate of wind and solar power could drop below 90% this year from nearly 97% in 2021.
While China’s slowing economy and energy use amid Covid-19 lockdowns has something to do with it, the main culprit is the blistering pace of renewable energy installations. China set a record for wind capacity additions in 2020 and for solar in 2021, and is set toBut unlike with mounds of coal, you can’t just save breezes and sunshine for when you need them, so all the extra capacity is generating more power than the grid can use and has to be cut off to avoid overloading it.
The good news is that China has developed more tools for dealing with its overabundance of wind and solar power – namely building