Located in the south of China, Guangdong has the largest nominal GDP of any of the country’s provinces at $1,092bn.
As of year-end 2014, Guangdong had total installed power generation capacity of 90.8GW, of which 15.4GW (17%) was accounted for by renewables, inclusive of large hydro which represents the lion’s share at 13.2GW. A total of 1.7GW of wind and 500MW of solar were also on line in 2014.
In terms of actual generation, fossil sources dominate with 78.3% or 279.2TWh in 2014 coming from thermal power. The province relies heavily on imported coal (41m tons in 2014) and liquefied natural gas (1.8m tons) for electricity generation. Nuclear is Guangdong’s second largest power source, accounting for 13.4%. Renewables are by comparison a small player, generating only 8.4% of the total in 2014. And of that generation, 96.6% came from hydropower.
Guangdong tends to be a weather vane for predicting China’s larger energy policy trends, both in terms of power generation and transportation. Shenzhen, one of Guangdong’s major cities, has attracted attention most recently after announcing plans for major power market reforms. The city’s power transmission and distribution (T&D) price scheme is due be fixed first. T&D price reform has been considered as the cornerstone of establishing flexible bilateral power trades.
Guangdong has also launched pilot programs to promote electric vehicle use including a New Energy Vehicles Development Action Plan to support local manufacturing. The local government produced its own purchase tax exemption policy for new energy vehicles in July 2014.
Released in July 2011, Guangdong’s 12th Five-year Plan for Energy Development set an overall energy consumption cap. Non-fossil fuel’s share of consumption was targeted to rise to 20% by 2015. Energy intensity was to be cut 18% compared with 2010 levels.
Guangdong’s 12th Five-year Plan for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management proposed improving by 19.5% carbon intensity by 2015 compared with 2010. In addition to a regulatory scheme enforcing that reduction, Guangdong is home to the Shenzhen Emissions Exchange.
The Shenzhen Exchange is one of seven pilots operating under China’s carbon emissions trading program. Shenzhen’s is the largest of these in terms of emissions covered. The scheme was launched on 19 December 2013 and is currently in a first test period due to run through 2015. That is then due to be followed by a second phase from 2016-2020. A total of 635 local enterprises have been allocated emission quotas, representing 38% of Shenzhen’s overall CO2 emissions. These enterprises are required to report GHG data through the Shenzhen Emission Exchange’s client system.