As another year comes to an end, we wanted to take a moment to wish you all the best in 2022! |
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Green Electricity Trading Workplan Starts in China — Integration of Certificates |
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Nowadays, under the trend of global emission reduction, China is actively promoting the 2060 carbon-neutral target, and the construction of a new power system based on renewables is the key path to promote the realization of the dual carbon target (2030 carbon peak, 2060 carbon neutrality). Therefore, China officially launched the pilot scheme of green electricity trading. In fact, before the start of this trading pilot, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and other regions have made some attempts. Some provincial-level power exchanges have issued "green power trading certificates" for market entities participating in the transaction. However, the transaction modes and price mechanisms are different since local governments formulate different regulations, so the certificate market system now lacks uniform standards. The green electricity trading pilot work plan will effectively promote the development of renewable energy, and gradually guide green power consumption through a market-oriented approach. Green electricity trading will gradually move towards an integration of electricity and certificates, and this will prevent the double counting of environmental attributes. All market entities participating in the transaction will receive green electricity certificates in the future, the electricity trading center will calculate the transactions and then allocate them to the end-users. China will have to continue to improve its green electricity trading regulations in the future, optimize the system, integrate energy certificates development, make the use of renewables easier, effectively avoid double counting of environmental attributes. On 2021 September 7, 259 market entities from 17 provinces completed 7.935 billion kilowatt-hour green electricity transactions, this was the first transaction after the green electricity trading pilot was officially launched. Reference 1, Reference 2 |
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Three Major Things to Know on China’s Carbon Market — Restart of CCER, Growing Carbon Price, and Carbon Trading in Liaoning |
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Restart of CCER In August, China Beijing Green Exchange Co., Ltd. released a public tender for the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction registration system and trading system, signaling the imminent relaunch of China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER), which is presumed to take place by the end of this year or early next year. Carbon Price is Expected to Grow Since the CCER verification process was postponed from 2017 and none of CCER projects have been verified since then, the current demand for the CCERs is much larger than the stock market, which would cause the rise of CCER prices. Besides the supply shortage for the CCER, as more high emission industries are expected to be included in the carbon trading market in the future, the situation of supply and demand imbalance is becoming increasingly evident. Based on these two circumstances, the carbon price would continue to grow. Shenyang, Liaoning Joined the Carbon Trading Market The carbon trading market in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, was prepared in the mid of 2016 and was launched in September. At present, there are 500 major emission enterprises included in the management of carbon emission trading allowances in Shenyang, and their total carbon allowances are about 27 million tons. China has gradually grown from 7 pilot provinces to 8, and now Liaoning has become one of them. There might be more and more provinces participating in the carbon trading market as pilots shortly. Reference 1, Reference 2 |
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The Renewable Energy Crisis in Japan |
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Reliance on China's imports of renewable energy generators sets China's solar panels with silicon as the main raw material that accounts for 70% of the global market. However, doubts about forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have once come to the front. The industries that are related in Japan are worried that “if this issue continues to spread, it will face the risk of China stopping the supply of panels” or even “face the crisis of Japan's solar energy industry operating without panels made in China.” Uyghur accounts for about 40% of the world's silicon production. However, the US government listed four Chinese companies as targets of sanctions in June. Even indirect transactions have the risk of breaking the law. Under this circumstance, panel prices on the market have risen, and small and medium-sized power generation companies have begun to review equipment investments. According to the report issued by IRENA in 2019, China has become the largest exporter of renewable energy. For example, China Longji, the leading solar manufacturer, has a global market share of 71% in 2020. In terms of wind turbines, China Goldwind is also a leading company in the industry. On the other hand, in July, the Japanese government updated and issued a draft policy that the proportion of renewable energy power generation in 2030 will increase to 36% ~38%. However, the industry does not see a bright future behind this positive goal. For example, in the agreement between the government and the private sector, wind power projects have a vision of 60% localization in 2040; however, Hitachi and Japan Steel have subsequently withdrawn from wind power-related manufacturing. Idemitsu Kosan announced on October 12 that it would cease production of solar panels. The only manufacturers in this industry in Japan are Kyocera and Sharp. Renewable energy scholars in Japan have expressed concern about this phenomenon. Reference 1, Reference 2 |
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Taiwan: How Can We Increase the Proportion of Renewable Energy？ |
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To promote renewable energy, Taiwan plans to generate 20% of its energy from renewable energy by 2025, up from 5% in 2020. However, it’s come out some challenges. People will doubt the inability to stabilize the power supply because renewable is intermittent and unpredictable. Also, Extreme climate plus pandemics make power demand surge. How can we solve this problem? |
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Demand Response The price mechanism or discount incentives can be used to induce customers to change their electricity consumption habits so that the peak and off-peak loads can be more balanced and power development can be delayed, or customers can cooperate to suppress electricity consumption when the system is tight to achieve the purpose of stabilizing power supply. Energy storage system Because of renewable energy’s characteristics, storage becomes impotent. Lithium batteries are currently the mainstream energy storage systems. Countries in the world are constantly improving and improving the manufacturing materials, stability, and safety of lithium batteries. Virtual power plant (VPP) Integrate distributed resources distributed in various regions through information and communication technology for operation monitoring, analysis, and decision-making, such as energy storage, demand, renewable energy or small-scale power generation, and other multi-resources. When the grid needs electricity, VPP can dispatch various resources and provide auxiliary power; on the contrary, when the power generation is too much, it can flexibly increase the attached load or store energy to absorb power to help achieve a balance. Reference |
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South Korea Raises its 2030 Emission Reduction Target |
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The South Korean government announced in October that it would increase its 2030 emission reduction target from the 26.3% pledged in 2018 to 40%, thereby strengthening the 2030 emission reduction target. In addition, the government announced this new goal during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) between Oct. 31 and Nov. 12 in Glasgow, the U.K. This new target is the first step toward carbon neutrality by 2050 announced before. However, the carbon reduction target is greater than 35% as indicated in the Carbon Neutrality Act, which was passed by the National Assembly on August 31. The South Korean government achieves this goal mainly through energy transformation and industrial control to reduce coal-fired power generation, expand renewable energy, and improve energy efficiency through new technologies to achieve the national carbon-neutral plan by 2050. At the same time, the industry ministry also held its first carbon-neutral exhibition in early October to promote various zero-emission products and technologies and discuss future policy directions for achieving carbon reduction goals. Reference 1, Reference 2 |
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India Could Achieve Net Zero Emission by 2070 |
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A recent study by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) found that India should increase its solar capacity to 5630 GW to become a net-zero emissions country by 2070. India should also be ready to develop recycling capabilities to handle the waste from solar PV. The study further found that the coal being used for power generation would peak by the year 2040 and drop by 99 percent between 2040 and 2060. India must also focus on developing new green technologies with other countries to create new jobs and markets. Green Hydrogen is one such technology India is eyeing to replace coal in the industrial sector. At present, India has 103 GW of renewable energy capacity, out of which solar comprises 47 GW. India has also set an ambitious target of achieving 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2030. Reference 1, Reference 2 |
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