Yunnan's green energy releases new momentum for development

Source: Economic Daily

Recently, leading global power battery company CATL and the Yunnan provincial government signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement in Kunming. They plan to invest in building a green lithium battery manufacturing base in the Dianzhong New Area and will collaborate across multiple fields around “Green Electricity + Advanced Manufacturing.”

CATL’s establishment in Yunnan is a microcosm of the province accelerating the transformation of its green energy advantages into industrial and developmental strengths. In recent years, Yunnan has focused heavily on industrial development, with electricity becoming a key support for many local industries. By 2025, the Green Aluminum Industry in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is expected to surpass 100 billion yuan in output value, reaching 101.6 billion yuan. The aluminum industry strongly supports local industrial growth, driving the entire society’s electricity consumption to new highs. Li Yongzhong, Standing Committee Member and Executive Vice Governor of Wenshan, said the province will fully utilize policies, accelerate downstream project capacity, and precisely attract investments around green electricity consumption to bring high-value-added, high-electricity-demand green industries to land, achieving synchronized growth of electricity use and industry development.

Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture has fully tapped into its rich wind and solar resources, with a total approved new energy installed capacity of 19.24 million kilowatts, and last year, green energy accounted for 97.4% of total power generation. Relying on its green energy advantages, the prefecture is seizing the opportunity during the concentrated construction period of new energy, vigorously developing green silicon, copper, titanium, vanadium, and new energy and energy storage equipment manufacturing industries. Wei Xin, Standing Committee Member and Vice Governor of Chuxiong, said that as green energy capacity expands, the prefecture is actively exploring nearby consumption of new energy, making good use of direct connection policies for green electricity, and planning projects like “Green Electricity + Computing Power Centers” in Chuxiong City and Yao County, tailored to local conditions.

It is reported that Yunnan has established a leading green energy system nationwide. By the end of last year, total power installed capacity exceeded 170 million kilowatts, with over 90% of it being green power, and carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour at just 0.13 kilograms. Guo Jinhua, Deputy Director of the Yunnan Development and Reform Commission, said that as new energy installed capacity continues to grow, the supply and demand for electricity are changing, and diversified ways of consumption are needed. The value of green electricity needs to be comprehensively enhanced.

In response, Yunnan has issued the “Several Measures to Promote Green Power Consumption,” aiming to accelerate the formation of a diversified consumption pattern and build a new “Source-Grid-Load-Storage” coordination system to support the construction of a new power system. The province continues to strengthen and optimize resource-based industries such as aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, and non-ferrous metals, promoting the alignment of new energy construction with the commissioning of new loads. Enterprises with a year-on-year industrial electricity growth of over 6% in the first quarter will receive electricity fee rewards to promote stable industrial electricity growth.

Based on resource endowments and comparative advantages, Yunnan is deeply planning the development of key industries such as deep processing of non-ferrous metals like aluminum and copper, and rare and precious metals like indium, germanium, and platinum. It is efficiently utilizing phosphorus resources to develop new energy batteries and fine phosphorus chemical industries, and fully building industries for green food and traditional Chinese medicine deep processing. While expanding resource industries, Yunnan is also cultivating new energy consumption scenarios, expanding absorption space, guiding green electricity toward high-value-added industries, and improving resource utilization efficiency. The province is promoting the integration of “Green Electricity + Smart Computing” and “Green Electricity + Hydrogen Production,” exploring new models of hydrogen production from waste and surplus electricity, and deploying new energy storage in resource-rich areas.

By the end of 2025, Yunnan will announce its first batch of four green electricity direct connection projects, located in Chuxiong, Wenshan, and other areas, involving smart computing centers, graphite anode materials, aluminum alloys, and mineral oxidation processing. These projects are expected to facilitate the local consumption of about 1.1 billion kWh of green electricity, promote integration of green power with industry, and enhance the green competitiveness of local products.

Long Yu, Deputy Director of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, said that focusing on key areas such as computing infrastructure and green hydrogen, the department will work with relevant agencies to increase investment attraction, introduce related enterprises into Yunnan, and promote policies to accelerate industrial production, full capacity, and multi-product manufacturing. They will also strengthen project guidance, coordinate to resolve difficulties, and push for early completion and operation of projects.

The power grid is a crucial platform connecting green electricity production and consumption. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Yunnan had built over 2,000 public substations of 35 kV and above, with high-voltage transmission lines of 110 kV and above covering all 129 counties (cities, districts) in the province, totaling over 100,000 kilometers of lines. Zhang Ya, Deputy General Manager of Yunnan Power Grid Co., Ltd., said they will innovate electricity services, lead enterprises to use green power, support the implementation of green power direct connections for hydrogen and ammonia industries, and actively guide the layout of computing and hydrogen industries in renewable energy-rich regions. They will encourage nearby and local consumption of new energy, innovate market-based trading and services for green electricity, and leverage Yunnan’s policy advantage of the free transfer of surplus conventional hydropower green certificates, effectively supporting the green power consumption of emerging industries like hydrogen ammonia and smart computing.

Yunnan’s abundant green energy provides vital support for the region’s green, low-carbon economic and social development, regional coordination, and energy security. The province will continue to expand green power export channels, utilizing both domestic and international markets, to extend Yunnan’s green electricity consumption within the State Grid’s eastern and Chengdu-Chongqing regions, and actively build an international energy corridor, pushing Yunnan’s power trade with South Asia and Southeast Asia to new heights. Chen Fan, Deputy Director of the Yunnan Energy Bureau, said. (Economic Daily Reporter Cao Song)