Electrical Equipment / Components & Telecoms

Currently, the global new energy market is in the ascendant, and China's new energy plays an increasingly important role in the global industrial and supply chains. In the context of the difficult recovery of the world economy and the accelerated restructuring of the international trade supply chain, China's new energy vehicles, photovoltaic products, energy storage, lithium batteries and other fields continue to deepen supply side structural reforms, accelerate industrial upgrading, and overall show a steady and positive development trend.

At the 2023 China New Energy International Cooperation Forum held recently, industry experts, officials of embassies in China and Chinese new energy enterprises attending the forum discussed and shared the current situation of international cooperation in new energy and the cooperation opportunities contained in countries along the "the Belt and Road".

China has become the main force of global green development

During the 14th Five Year Plan period, China's energy revolution was deeply promoted, and energy production and consumption continued to shift towards clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient. In 2022, the proportion of clean energy consumption such as water and solar power in China's total energy consumption was 17.5%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to 2021.

At present, China is the world's largest renewable energy market and equipment manufacturing country, and has become the main force in the global green and low-carbon transformation and development. Among them, China's photovoltaic industry is an important pillar industry in the global new energy field.

Zhang Sen, Secretary General of the Solar Photovoltaic Branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for International Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products, stated in the release of the "White Paper on the External Development of China's Photovoltaic Industry" that China is the largest exporter of photovoltaic trade, developing from equipment, raw materials, and application markets to manufacturing, installed capacity, and power generation. The photovoltaic industry actively contributes China's strength to the global low-carbon society.

At present, China's photovoltaic modules have been exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world. Since 2016, the investment focus of photovoltaic enterprises has extended to upstream manufacturing, and the supporting system of industries in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and other regions has gradually become complete, forming a diversified manufacturing layout. "Zhang Sen introduced that in the past two years, Chinese photovoltaic enterprises have increased their efforts to expand their international trade factories in Southeast Asia. As of the end of 2022, the overseas factory capacity of Chinese photovoltaic companies in Southeast Asia exceeded 40GW. At the same time, the pace of Chinese new energy enterprises' 'going global' is constantly accelerating. In 2022, China signed approximately 136 solar photovoltaic power generation projects overseas, with project amounts approaching 10 billion US dollars, a significant increase of 74.6%.

In recent years, sustainable green development has become a global consensus, and "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" are leading a broad and profound economic and social system change. Yuan Yong, assistant general manager of the Credit Evaluation Center of China International Trade Export credit insurance Corporation, said that many countries have made a clear commitment to returning and abandoning coal, and constantly revised renewable energy power generation goals and related policies to promote transformation and upgrading. Export insurance institutions around the world have successively issued coal restriction policies to implement national climate strategies, and financial institutions around the world have also introduced a series of measures to restrict coal power financing. With the strengthening of energy conservation, emission reduction, and environmental control measures, as well as the continuous breakthroughs in clean energy technology, the global energy structure is constantly tilted towards clean energy.

According to data from the International Energy Agency, from 2021 to 2026, China remains the global leader in new renewable energy installations, accounting for 43% of the global total. However, it should be noted that with the rapid growth of foreign investment in renewable energy and the number of engineering projects in China, the financing model for new energy electricity consumption does not match The low level of internationalization of Chinese standards is also becoming increasingly prominent.

Opportunities for Chinese enterprises to "go global"

"Azerbaijan is a big oil and gas country, but we hope that by 2030, 30% of the energy structure will come from renewable energy." Temur Nadiroglu, ambassador of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in China, said that Azerbaijan has huge potential for renewable energy, including wind power in shallow beach areas and offshore wind power in deep water areas. Currently, two projects, a 240GW wind power plant and a 130GW solar power plant, are under construction and are expected to be completed next year.

These two projects are both foreign-funded, and Chinese enterprises have also participated in the project in the form of general contracting. "Temur Nadiroglu said bluntly, in the future, Azerbaijan hopes that Chinese enterprises can further participate in the project, not only as investors in the general contracting of the project, but also as investors.

As an important lithium supplier, cooperation between Zimbabwe's related industries and Chinese enterprises is ongoing. Regarding cooperation in the renewable energy industry, Ambassador Counselor Pandisay Mayela of the Embassy of Zimbabwe in China expressed the hope that Chinese companies can strengthen cooperation in hydrogen, solar, and wind energy. In the next two months, we will hold an investment fair in Beijing, where our energy regulatory department will introduce opportunities for development in Zimbabwe

Chile also hopes to strengthen cooperation. Nata, Commercial Counselor of the Chilean Embassy in China, stated that Chile is one of the countries with the fastest energy transition in the world, especially in the field of non fossil fuels. The country's goal is to replace more than half of its coal-fired power plants by 2025 and complete coal withdrawal by 2040.

Green hydrogen will be an area where we will continue to cooperate with China, "Nata said. Chile has abundant resources in green energy, and experts from the country believe that Chile will become one of the most competitive green hydrogen countries. The related costs will become the lowest in the world by 2030. Therefore, from now until 2030, Chile will increase its efforts to enhance its domestic green hydrogen production capacity and strive to become an international trade exporter of green hydrogen by 2030.

In order to better promote foreign investment in the new energy industry, the Philippines proposed incentive measures last year. Hong Fusheng, Commercial Counselor of the Philippine Embassy in China, introduced that previously, foreign investment had only 40% ownership in renewable energy projects. However, according to current policies, foreign investment can have 100% ownership.

Hong Fusheng stated that last year, the installed capacity of the Philippines was 20GW, of which 70% came from renewable energy. According to statistics from the Philippine Department of Energy, by 2040, the total national energy generation capacity will reach 110GW. The majority of the increase in 90GW needs to come from renewable energy, which brings new investment opportunities for Chinese enterprises