Qinghai province attempts to use only renewable power over 15-day period

Its clean power consumption reached 78% in 2018.

China’s northwest province of Qinghai, which is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, is attempting to use only renewable sources for the electricity needs of its population of about six million over a 15-day period starting 9 June, a report by Bloomberg revealed.

China is trying to boost its renewable power consumption and ease reliance on coal and curbing pollution. Measures include setting mandatory targets for clean energy use and reducing solar and wind power wastage.

Qinghai’s clean power use reached 78% of total energy consumption in 2018, up 13 pp from the year before, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).

The Qinghai move is “like a stress test,” said Tian Miao, an analyst at Everbright Sun Hung Kai Co. in Beijing. “It wants to see how an increase in solar and wind power use will affect grids under extreme circumstances, and what can be done.”

State grid Qinghai Electric Power Co. said it will make use of energy storage to help level out peaks in electricity use over the period. It also introduced a green power index to evaluate clean energy development in the province.

Read the full report here.