ABSTRACT
Notwithstanding the country’s notable achievements on RE development to date, both the Chinese government and business face some difficult challenges ahead. We have only been able to touch upon those facing policy-makers in particular, namely grid connectivity problems and other infrastructural bottlenecks, establishing up-to-date technical standards, co-ordinating central and local government policy concerning regional RE business development, and establishing clearer demarcations of responsibility among various actors in different RE systems. The government’s future targets on renewables development may look impressive in absolute terms (e.g. 430GW hydropower and 200GW wind by 2020) by direct international comparison. However, given that the country’s energy system is growing fast on most fronts, the real challenge will be to raise renewables’ relative share of national energy generation and consumption. Many nations have set the goal of renewables contributing around 15-30% of the nation’s total electricity generation or total energy mix by 2020 (REN21 2013). China’s present targets on electricity generation from non-hydro renewables especially are not that remarkable by comparison. For Chinese business in the international market context, the two main challenges will be how to address the protectionism of foreign trade partners and to improve domestic techno-innovatory capacity. The first of these challenges will naturally depend largely on factors beyond Chinese company control, specifically how foreign firms and governments respond to the perceived competitive threats China’s RE industries pose. Regarding the second, with strong state support aimed at transforming the country into an ‘innovation hub’ economy – for example through the 12th FYP’s SEIs programme – backed by considerable levels of domestic business investment, Chinese companies are already making significant advances on techno-innovation in wind, solar and other RE sectors. This represents another area where China can make increasingly important contributions to global RE development in the future.
