By 2024 China is building 30 Concentrated Solar Power Projects as part of gigawatt-scale renewable energy complexes in each province, appropriately reflecting the urgency and scale needed for climate action
China has already made major commitments to transitioning its energy systems towards renewables, especially power generation from solar, wind and hydro sources. However, there are many unknowns about the future of solar energy in China, including its cost, technical feasibility and grid compatibility in the coming decades.
Researchers from Harvard, Tsinghua University in Beijing, Nankai University in Tianjin and Renmin University of China in Beijing have found that solar energy could provide 43.2% of China’s electricity demands in 2060 at less than two-and-a-half U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour.
Indeed, China is leading the way in renewables development. In July 2024, new data from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found that China is building almost twice as much wind and solar energy capacity as every other country in the world combined, with 180GW of utility-scale solar and 159GW of wind power already under construction.
Solar PV and Wind energy have been the focus of attention in the past ten years. Development of CSP in China is still at its infancy phase. The paper evaluates the potential of CSP development by assessing solar, water, land, climatic conditions and manmade resources as key criteria for suitable site selection of CSP plants in China.
Projects 1. Noor Phase III CSP Project (150 MW) in Morocco, a central tower Concentrating Solar Power project, has the largest unit capacity in the world.