The National Development and Reform Commission and other departments

Guiding Opinions on Vigorously Implementing Renewable Energy Substitution Action

NDRC Energy [2024] No. 1537

Provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Development and Reform Commission, industry and information technology competent departments, housing and urban-rural development departments (commissions, management commissions, bureaus), transportation departments (bureaus, commissions), energy bureaus, data management departments, and various dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration:

In order to fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the 2nd and 3rd Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee, deeply implement the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on carbon peak and carbon neutrality, promote the construction of a green, low-carbon and circular development economic system, and promote the formation of green, low-carbon production and lifestyle, we now vigorously implement the action of replacing renewable energy, and formulate the following opinions.

1、 Overall requirements

Vigorously implementing renewable energy substitution, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, implementing the new energy security strategy of "Four Revolutions and One Cooperation", adhering to overall planning and safe substitution, correctly handling the relationship between "breaking" and "establishing" traditional and new energy, promoting the integration of source, grid, load and storage, and comprehensively enhancing the safe and reliable supply capacity of renewable energy; Balancing supply and demand, orderly substitution, coordinating the supply of renewable energy with the consumption of green energy in key areas, accelerating incremental substitution, steadily expanding stock substitution, and steadily promoting the orderly substitution of traditional fossil fuels with renewable energy; Collaborative integration and diversified substitution, promoting the integration and substitution of renewable energy with industries, transportation, construction, agriculture, and rural areas, and economically and efficiently advancing the diversified development and substitution of power generation, heating, gas production, and hydrogen production; Technology leads, innovation replaces, vigorously promotes pilot projects for new technology research and development, innovates institutional mechanisms, and accelerates the cultivation of new scenarios, models, and formats for renewable energy substitution. Positive progress has been made in the replacement of renewable energy in key areas of the 14th Five Year Plan, with the national consumption of renewable energy reaching over 1.1 billion tons of standard coal by 2025. The production and lifestyle of prioritizing the use of renewable energy in various fields during the 15th Five Year Plan period has basically taken shape. By 2030, the national consumption of renewable energy will reach over 1.5 billion tons of standard coal, providing strong support for achieving the 2030 carbon peak target.

2、 Focus on enhancing the safe and reliable substitution capability of renewable energy

（1） Comprehensively enhance the supply capacity of renewable energy. Accelerate the construction of large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases with a focus on deserts, Gobi, and desert areas, and promote the cluster development of offshore wind power. Scientifically and orderly promote the construction of large-scale hydropower bases, and coordinate the comprehensive development of water, wind, and solar energy. Develop distributed renewable energy sources nearby. Steadily developing biomass power generation and promoting the large-scale development of solar thermal power generation. Accelerate the improvement of renewable energy resource assessment, power forecasting, and intelligent regulation capabilities. Promote the application of new technologies such as grid based new energy and long-term power forecasting. Develop green fuels such as bio natural gas, bio diesel, and bio aviation coal according to local conditions, and actively and orderly develop renewable energy for hydrogen production. Promote the rational and efficient utilization of geothermal energy resources, and promote the large-scale utilization of wave energy, tidal energy, temperature difference energy, and other energy sources. Promote the establishment of a heating system that synergizes and complements renewable energy and traditional energy, and utilizes them in a cascade manner.

（2） Accelerate the construction of supporting infrastructure for renewable energy. Promote the iteration of advanced technologies such as flexible DC transmission and AC/DC hybrid distribution networks, and accelerate the construction of a digital and intelligent power grid. Strengthen the connection between renewable energy and power development planning, and promote coordinated development of grid and power sources. Promote the upgrading of the backbone network of the power grid, strengthen the construction of cross provincial and cross regional transmission channels, optimize dispatch control, and prioritize the dispatch of renewable energy electricity. Continuously optimize the structure of the distribution network, accelerate the integration and intelligent upgrading of the first and second stages of the distribution network, optimize the scheduling mechanism of the distribution network, enhance the flexibility and carrying capacity of the distribution network, and support the rapid development of distributed renewable energy. Strengthen the construction and upgrading of infrastructure such as heating, gas pipeline networks, and hydrogen energy supply networks, enhance the interconnection of pipeline networks, and accept more non electric renewable energy sources nearby.

（3） Deeply explore the potential for demand side resource regulation. Actively expanding the scope of demand response entities and accelerating the construction of a demand response resource library. Encourage demand response entities with charging and discharging capabilities to participate in the electricity market. Support regions with the necessary conditions to guide electricity users to adjust their electricity consumption behavior through measures such as implementing peak electricity prices and expanding the price range of spot markets. Strengthen the demand side management of electricity in key areas such as industry, construction, and transportation, optimize processes and production procedures, and participate in power system regulation through interruptible and controllable loads.

（4） Diversified enhancement of power system regulation capability. Strengthen the flexibility transformation of coal-fired power units, promote self owned power plants to actively participate in peak shaving, optimize coal-fired power dispatching methods, and reasonably determine the dispatching sequence and peak shaving depth. Research and promote the optimization and upgrading of large-scale hydropower stations, and orderly construct pumped storage power stations. Strengthen the research and development of new energy storage technologies and their multi scenario applications. Promote the application of long-term thermal storage power generation, thermoelectric coupling, and utilization of medium and high temperature heat for photothermal purposes. Encourage biomass power generation projects to provide auxiliary services such as peak shaving.

3、 Accelerate the promotion of renewable energy substitution applications in key areas

（5） Jointly promote the green and low-carbon transformation of industrial energy use. Scientifically guide the orderly transfer of industry to regions rich in renewable energy and capable of carrying resources and environment, and strengthen the coupling development of industries such as steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, building materials, textiles, and papermaking with renewable energy. Increase the proportion of short process steelmaking and promote technologies such as electric boilers, electric kilns, and electric heating in key industries such as metallurgy, casting, building materials, daily glass, non-ferrous metals, and chemical engineering. Carry out integrated projects of new energy source grid, load and storage in surrounding areas such as industrial parks and large production enterprises, promote the construction and application of industrial green microgrids, direct supply of green electricity, and substitution of coal-fired self owned power plants. Accelerate the promotion of low-temperature heat utilization of renewable energy in fields such as papermaking, printing and dyeing, and food processing. Encourage the large-scale substitution of low-carbon hydrogen for high carbon hydrogen in fields such as synthetic ammonia, synthetic methanol, petrochemicals, and steel, and explore the construction of integrated bases for wind solar hydrogen ammonia alcohol. Under the premise of ensuring residents' winter heating, promote the shutdown and integration of internal combustion coal boilers within the heating range of cogeneration units, promote the transformation of coupled biomass combustion technology according to local conditions, and encourage the development of large capacity coal-fired boilers mixed with green ammonia combustion. Accelerate the integration of oil and gas exploration and development with renewable energy, and create low-carbon and zero carbon oil and gas fields.

（6） Accelerate the integration and interaction between transportation and renewable energy. Constructing renewable energy transportation corridors. Encourage the construction of multi-functional integrated light storage, charging, and discharging stations in highway rest areas, railway stations, bus stations, airports, and ports where conditions permit. Accelerate the development of electric passenger vehicles, steadily promote the electrification replacement of buses, and explore and promote the application of new energy medium and heavy-duty trucks. Actively explore the development of electrified highways and increase efforts in railway electrification renovation. Promote the use of shore power for ship docking and encourage the pilot application of green electric intelligent ships. Promote the application of sustainable aviation fuels and carry out pilot operations of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Promote the pilot application of green and clean liquid fuels for vehicles in an orderly manner. Support regions with conditions to carry out pilot operations of biodiesel, bio aviation coal, bio natural gas, green hydrogen ammonia alcohol, etc. in the fields of ships and aviation.

（7） Deepen the integrated application of renewable energy in buildings. Incorporate the priority use of renewable energy into urban planning, construction, renewal, and renovation. Promote the comprehensive implementation of green building standards in urban new construction, and continuously improve the substitution requirements for renewable energy electricity, heat, and gas. Promote ultra-low energy and near zero energy buildings, develop near zero carbon buildings, and promote the application of flexible electricity technology in buildings. Promote the installation of photovoltaic systems on the roofs of existing buildings, and encourage new factories and public buildings with conditions to fully install photovoltaic systems. Promote the comprehensive electrification of newly constructed public buildings, promote the use of electric pumps, water heaters, high-efficiency electromagnetic stoves, and other alternative products to coal and gas, and promote the application of high-efficiency DC electrical appliances and equipment. Actively promote the application of solar thermal energy in areas with abundant solar energy resources and buildings with stable hot water demand. We will promote the application of geothermal energy, air source heat pumps, and centralized biomass energy for heating and cooling according to local conditions. In remote areas, users can use biomass formed fuel stoves for heating based on the principle of local materials.

（8） Fully support the clean and modernized use of energy in agriculture and rural areas. Actively develop decentralized wind power and distributed photovoltaic power generation in rural areas where conditions permit. Promote the coordinated treatment of agricultural and forestry waste, livestock manure, and rural organic waste, and reasonably layout biomass power generation, centralized biomass clean heating, and bio natural gas projects. Accelerate the transformation and upgrading of rural energy infrastructure, and explore the promotion of microgrid construction. Promote the entry of bio natural gas into the pipeline network in areas with conditions, promote centralized heating in towns and villages according to local conditions, prioritize the use of geothermal energy, solar energy and other heating methods, gradually reduce or even prohibit coal burning. Promote the electrification and upgrading of rural production and life, build rural energy stations, and improve the capacity of rural energy public services. Combining digital rural construction to enhance the level of smart energy use in rural areas, incorporating rural energy facility construction into the rural construction project library, and piloting high-quality rural energy revolution.

（9） Coordinate the development and utilization of new infrastructure and renewable energy. Strengthen the construction of charging infrastructure, gas stations, and hydrogen refueling stations, and improve the urban and rural charging network system. Optimize the spatial layout of new infrastructure, promote the integrated development of 5G base stations, data centers, supercomputing centers, etc. with photovoltaics, heat pumps, energy storage, etc. Promote the deep integration and development of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and renewable energy. Support the development of new infrastructure projects such as green power direct supply and integrated source grid load storage, carry out green certificate green power trading and the construction of "green power parks", and increase the proportion of new energy electricity consumption in strategic projects such as "East Data West Calculation". Support the construction of big data centers in regions with cold water resources in national hub nodes. Orderly carry out green technology transformation of old base stations and "old scattered" data centers. Promote the steady increase in the proportion of renewable energy usage in the construction of new data centers year by year.

4、 Actively promote pilot projects for renewable energy substitution innovation

（10） Accelerate pilot applications. Carry out pilot applications such as deep-sea floating offshore wind power and annual production of millions of cubic meters of bio natural gas projects, and promote the deep joint operation of solar thermal and wind photovoltaic power. Carry out pilot projects for green direct power supply in factories and parks, and promote pilot projects for comprehensive utilization of renewable energy with grid structure, isolated grid operation, and self provided nature. Promote the transformation of coupled biomass combustion technology for large-scale coal-fired power generation boilers by blending agricultural and forestry waste according to local conditions and resource conditions. Encourage and guide the upgrading of renewable energy equipment and the recycling of waste equipment and facilities. Promote the application of low-carbon and zero carbon production processes and industrial process reengineering technologies in fields such as steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, and building materials. Promote the application of hydrogen metallurgy and hydrogen based chemical technology. Promote the integration and innovation of the optical storage end information industry, and explore the pilot of integrated optical storage charging and discharging. Support parks, enterprises, large public buildings, etc. to carry out pilot projects for high proportion of new energy generation, supply, and use, significantly increasing the proportion of new energy electricity consumption. Build green energy pilot parks with 100% renewable energy supply for new energy consumption in market-oriented ways in national and provincial economic development zones with a solid foundation.

（11） Promote the integration and innovation of business formats. Promote the cross industry integration of industry, transportation, construction, agriculture, forestry, and renewable energy, and advance the deep and three-dimensional development of photovoltaic desertification control, photovoltaic corridors, and marine pastures, forming an innovative alternative development situation of deep integration and sustainable substitution. Support the development and growth of new business entities such as digital energy, virtual power plants, and rural energy cooperatives, and cultivate new business models that adapt to clean, efficient, and safe energy alternatives. Encourage business model innovation that can promote the substitution of renewable energy in multiple varieties, fields, and forms, vigorously develop comprehensive energy services that can support efficient supply-demand coordination, and accelerate the implementation of new business models such as vehicle network interaction and electric carbon asset management.

5、 Strengthening measures to ensure the substitution of renewable energy

（12） Establish sound laws, regulations, and standards. Establish and improve laws and regulations that support the priority utilization of renewable energy, and revise them in conjunction with the Energy Law, Renewable Energy Law, Electricity Law, Energy Conservation Law, etc., to clarify the relevant rights, obligations, and legal responsibilities of various entities in the development and utilization of renewable energy. Accelerate the improvement of the relevant standard system in the field of renewable energy. Based on the revision of standards in key areas, the substitution and utilization of renewable energy will be included in the standard and normative system for green and low-carbon development in various fields. Strengthen the implementation of standards and norms, and promote the evaluation of implementation effects.

（13） Improve the mechanism for green energy consumption. Fully implement the requirement of excluding non fossil energy from the total energy consumption and intensity control, use green certificates as the basic voucher for renewable energy electricity consumption accounting, and strengthen the effective connection between green certificates and energy-saving and carbon reduction policies. Improve the weight mechanism for the responsibility of renewable energy electricity consumption, implement the consumption responsibility to key energy consuming units, and strengthen the rigid constraints on high energy consuming enterprises to use green electricity. Accelerate the establishment of a green electricity consumption certification mechanism based on green certificates. Promote the integration of green certificates and green electricity with the national carbon market. Incorporate the requirements for green electricity consumption into the evaluation criteria for green products, expand the certification catalog for green products, study and formulate policies related to government procurement support for green products, and promote policies such as green finance for products mainly produced using green electricity.

（14） Implement policies supporting science and technology finance. Make good use of relevant policies and key projects of the national key research and development plan to promote the application of the first major technological equipment, and support the research and pilot application of key technologies for renewable energy substitution. Establish a sound green finance mechanism to support investment in renewable energy substitution and infrastructure construction and upgrading by various sectors and entities. Encourage innovation in credit products and services, and provide long-term stable financing support in accordance with the principles of marketization and rule of law.

（15） Establish sound market and pricing mechanisms. Deepen the market-oriented reform of new energy grid connected electricity prices, establish and improve medium - and long-term, spot, and ancillary service market trading mechanisms that adapt to the characteristics of renewable energy, support direct transactions between renewable energy generation projects and various users, and sign multi-year purchase and sale agreements with users. Promote the fair participation of renewable energy generation or comprehensive utilization systems with the ability to provide ancillary services in the ancillary service market. Establish and improve market mechanisms for renewable energy heating, biogas, and clean low-carbon hydrogen. Establish a sound energy storage pricing mechanism. The centralized charging and swapping facilities that implement a two-part electricity pricing system are exempt from electricity charges for the required quantity (capacity) within the prescribed period. Safely and orderly promote the participation of distributed new energy generation in market-oriented transactions, and promote the nearby consumption of distributed new energy. Strengthen the supervision of new energy in terms of fair access to the power grid, participation in the electricity market, and consumption and utilization.

（16） Deepen and promote international cooperation. Strengthen green energy cooperation with countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road", deepen green energy practical cooperation, and promote the completion of a number of green energy best practice projects. Establish a clean energy international cooperation statistical analysis platform to promote international cooperation in the research and development of advanced technology and equipment for renewable energy applications in key fields such as industry, transportation, construction, agriculture, and rural areas. Support the exchange of green certificates and green electricity with international organizations, and promote the internationalization of green certificates. Promote the "the Belt and Road" scientific and technological innovation action plan, and carry out joint research and exchange training.

（17） Strengthen publicity and guidance. Mobilize the entire population to participate in the renewable energy substitution action, organize training and pilot activities on the application of renewable energy in cities, rural areas, communities, and parks, vigorously support the sales and use of renewable energy products, and promote residents to practice and promote green lifestyles.

At all levels of development and reform, energy, industry and information technology, transportation, housing and urban-rural development, agriculture and rural areas, science and technology, finance, natural resources, ecological environment, finance, data, railways, civil aviation and other departments shall strengthen coordination and cooperation according to their functional division of labor, enhance overall coordination and supervision guidance, and promote the organization and implementation of this opinion. Each region should fully recognize the importance and urgency of renewable energy substitution actions, and accelerate the promotion of renewable energy substitution based on the actual economic and social development of the region, as well as the construction of new power systems.

National Development and Reform Commission

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development

Ministry of Transport

National Energy Administration

National Data Agency

October 18, 2024