On October 30, six departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission and Other Departments on Vigorously Implementing Renewable Energy Substitution Actions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions").

The document mentioned that the substitution of renewable energy in key areas of the 14th Five-Year Plan has made positive progress, and the national renewable energy consumption will reach more than 1.1 billion tons of standard coal in 2025. The production and living style that gives priority to the use of renewable energy in various fields of the 15th Five-Year Plan has basically been formed, and the national renewable energy consumption will reach more than 1.5 billion tons of standard coal in 2030.

2024 is coming to an end, and 2025 is the final year of my country’s 14th Five-Year Plan.

my country's energy industry is highly dependent on planning and policy guidance. The release of the "Guiding Opinions" can be seen as guidance on the direction of the "15th Five-Year Plan" to a certain extent.

In the next five years, will my country's new energy industry be another booming five years? Let us wait and see.

Development and Reform Commissions of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, industrial and information technology departments, housing and urban-rural development departments (commissions, management committees, bureaus), transportation departments (bureaus, commissions), energy bureaus, data management departments, and all 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 Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee, thoroughly 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 and low-carbon production and lifestyles, the following opinions are formulated on vigorously implementing renewable energy substitution actions.

1. General requirements
We will vigorously implement renewable energy substitution, take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guide, implement the new energy security strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation", adhere to overall planning and safe substitution , correctly handle the relationship between "breaking" and "establishing" traditional energy and new energy, promote the integration of source, grid, load and storage, and comprehensively improve the safe and reliable supply capacity of renewable energy; coordinate supply and demand, orderly substitution , coordinate the supply of renewable energy and green energy consumption in key areas, accelerate the promotion of incremental substitution, steadily expand stock substitution, and steadily promote the orderly substitution of renewable energy for traditional fossil energy; coordinate integration and diversified substitution , coordinate the integration and substitution of renewable energy with industry, transportation, construction, agriculture and rural areas, and economically and efficiently promote the diversified development and substitution of power generation, heating, gas production and hydrogen production; lead by science and technology, innovate substitution , vigorously promote new technology research and pilot projects, innovate systems and mechanisms, and accelerate the cultivation of new scenarios, new models and new formats for renewable energy substitution. The substitution of renewable energy in key areas of the "14th Five-Year Plan" has made positive progress, and the national renewable energy consumption will reach more than 1.1 billion tons of standard coal in 2025. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, a production and living style that gives priority to the use of renewable energy in all fields has been basically formed. By 2030, the national renewable energy consumption will reach more than 1.5 billion tons of standard coal, providing strong support for achieving the 2030 carbon peak target.

II. Focus on improving the safe and reliable substitution capacity of renewable energy
  (I) Comprehensively improve the supply capacity of renewable energy. Accelerate the construction of large-scale wind power 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 light. Develop distributed renewable energy nearby. Steadily develop biomass power generation and promote the large-scale development of solar thermal power generation. Accelerate the improvement of renewable energy resource assessment, power prediction, and intelligent regulation capabilities. Promote the application of new technologies such as grid-building new energy and long-term power prediction. Develop green fuels such as biogas, biodiesel, and biojet fuel according to local conditions, and actively and orderly develop renewable energy hydrogen production. Promote the rational and efficient use of geothermal energy resources, and promote the large-scale use of wave energy, tidal energy, temperature difference energy, etc. Promote the establishment of a heating system that is synergistic and complementary with traditional energy and is used in a cascaded manner.

(II) Accelerate the construction of supporting infrastructure for renewable energy. Promote the iteration of advanced technologies such as flexible direct current transmission and AC/DC hybrid distribution networks, and accelerate the construction of digital and intelligent power grids. Strengthen the connection between renewable energy and power development plans, and promote the coordinated development of networks and sources. Promote the quality upgrade of the main grid of the power grid, strengthen the construction of inter-provincial and inter-regional transmission channels, optimize dispatching and control, and give priority to dispatching renewable energy power. Continue to optimize the grid structure of the distribution network, accelerate the integration and intelligent upgrade of the primary and secondary distribution networks, optimize the dispatching mechanism of the distribution network, improve 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 heat, gas pipelines and hydrogen energy supply networks, strengthen the interconnection of pipelines, and accept more non-electric renewable energy nearby.
  (III) Deeply explore the potential of demand-side resource regulation. Actively expand the scope of demand response entities and accelerate the construction of a demand response resource library. Encourage demand response entities with charging and discharging capabilities to participate in the electricity market. Support qualified regions to guide power users to adjust their electricity consumption behavior by implementing peak electricity prices and widening the price limit range of the spot market. Strengthen power demand-side management in key areas such as industry, construction, and transportation, optimize processes and production processes, and participate in power system regulation in the form of interruptible loads and controllable loads.
  (IV) Improve the regulation capacity of the power system in a diversified way. Strengthen the flexibility transformation of coal-fired power units, promote self-provided power plants to actively participate in peak regulation, optimize the dispatching mode of coal-fired power, and reasonably determine the dispatching order and peak regulation depth. Research and promote the optimization and upgrading of large hydropower stations, and orderly build pumped storage power stations. Strengthen the research and development of new energy storage technologies and multi-scenario applications. Promote the application of solar thermal energy such as long-term heat storage power generation, thermoelectric coupling, and medium and high temperature heat utilization. Encourage biomass power generation projects to provide auxiliary services such as peak regulation.

3. Accelerate the promotion of renewable energy substitution applications in key areas
  (V) Coordinated promotion of green and low-carbon transformation of industrial energy use. Scientifically guide the orderly transfer of industry to areas rich in renewable energy and with sustainable resources and environment, and strengthen the coupled development of industries such as steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals, building materials, textiles, and papermaking with renewable energy. Increase the proportion of short-process steelmaking, and promote electric boilers, electric kilns, electric heating and other technologies in key industries such as metallurgy, casting, building materials, daily glass, nonferrous metals, and chemicals. Carry out new energy source-grid-load-storage integration projects in the surrounding areas of industrial parks and large-scale production enterprises, and promote the construction and application of industrial green microgrids, direct supply of green electricity, and substitution of coal-fired self-contained power plants. Accelerate the promotion of medium- and low-temperature heat utilization of renewable energy in the fields of papermaking, printing and dyeing, and food processing. Encourage the large-scale substitution of low-carbon hydrogen for high-carbon hydrogen in the fields of synthetic ammonia, synthetic methanol, petrochemicals, and steel, and explore the construction of wind, solar, hydrogen, ammonia, and alcohol integrated bases. Promote the shutdown and integration of coal-fired boilers within the heating range of cogeneration units on the premise of ensuring winter heating for residents, 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 integrated development of oil and gas exploration and development with renewable energy, and create low-carbon and zero-carbon oil and gas fields.
  (VI) Accelerate the integration and interaction of transportation and renewable energy. Build renewable energy transportation corridors. Encourage the construction of photovoltaic storage charging and discharging multifunctional integrated stations in qualified highway rest areas, railway stations, bus stations, airports and ports. Accelerate the development of electric passenger vehicles, steadily promote the electrification of buses, and explore and promote the application of new energy medium and heavy trucks. Actively explore the development of electrified roads and increase the intensity of railway electrification transformation. Promote the use of shore power by ships at ports and encourage the pilot application of green electric smart ships. Promote the application of sustainable aviation fuel and carry out pilot operations of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Orderly promote the pilot application of green and clean liquid fuel for vehicles. Support regions with conditions to carry out pilot operations of biodiesel, biojet fuel, biogas, green hydrogen ammonia, etc. in the fields of ships and aviation.
 (VII) Deepen the integrated application of renewable energy in buildings. Incorporate the priority use of renewable energy into the planning, construction, renewal and renovation of cities and towns. Promote the full implementation of green building standards for new urban buildings, and continuously improve the requirements for the substitution of renewable energy electricity, heat and gas. Promote ultra-low energy consumption and near-zero energy consumption 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 promote the installation of photovoltaic systems in new factories and new public buildings where conditions permit. Promote the full electrification of new public buildings, promote electric heat pump water heaters, high-efficiency induction cookers and other products that replace coal and gas, and promote the application of high-efficiency DC electrical appliances and equipment. Actively promote the application of solar thermal in areas with relatively rich solar energy resources and buildings with stable hot water demand. Promote the application of heating and cooling such as geothermal energy, air source heat pumps and centralized biomass energy according to local conditions. Remote areas can use domestic biomass molded fuel stoves for heating according to the principle of using local materials.
  (VIII) Fully support the modernization of clean energy use in agriculture and rural areas. Actively develop distributed wind power and distributed photovoltaic power generation in rural areas with conditions. Promote the coordinated treatment of agricultural and forestry waste, livestock and poultry manure, etc. with rural organic waste, and rationally arrange biomass power generation, centralized biomass clean heating and biogas projects. Accelerate the transformation and upgrading of rural energy infrastructure, and explore and promote the construction of micro-energy networks (microgrids). Promote the entry of biogas into pipelines in areas with conditions, promote centralized heating in towns and villages according to local conditions, give priority to the use of geothermal energy, solar energy and other heating, and gradually reduce and even prohibit scattered coal burning. Promote the transformation and upgrading of rural production and life electrification, build rural energy stations, and improve rural energy public service capabilities. Combine the construction of digital villages to improve the level of smart energy use in rural areas, incorporate the construction of rural energy facilities into the rural construction project library, and build high-quality rural energy revolution pilot projects.
 (IX) Coordinate the development and utilization of new infrastructure and renewable energy. Strengthen the construction of charging infrastructure, gas stations, and hydrogen stations, and improve the urban and rural charging network system. Optimize the spatial layout of new infrastructure, and promote the integrated development of 5G base stations, data centers, supercomputing centers, photovoltaics, heat pumps, and energy storage. 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 direct green electricity supply and source-grid-load-storage integration, carry out green certificate green electricity trading and the construction of "green electricity parks", and increase the proportion of new energy power consumption in strategic projects such as "East Data West Computing". Support the construction of big data centers in areas with cold water resources in national hub nodes. Carry out green technology transformation of old base stations and "old, small and scattered" data centers in an orderly manner. Promote the steady increase in the proportion of renewable energy use in newly built data centers year by year.

IV. Actively promote pilot projects on renewable energy substitution innovation

(10) Accelerate pilot applications. Carry out pilot applications such as deep-sea floating offshore wind power and biogas projects with an annual output of tens of millions of cubic meters, and promote the deep joint operation of solar thermal and wind power and photovoltaic power. Carry out green direct power supply pilot projects in factories and parks, and promote pilot projects for comprehensive utilization of renewable energy projects with grid-building, isolated grid operation, and self-supplied nature. Combined with resource conditions, promote the transformation of coupled biomass combustion technologies such as the mixing of agricultural and forestry wastes in large coal-fired power generation boilers according to local 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 the fields of steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, and building materials. Carry out the promotion and application of hydrogen metallurgy and hydrogen-based chemical technologies. Promote the integration and innovation of the photovoltaic, storage, terminal, and telecommunications industries, and explore the integration of photovoltaic, storage, charging, and discharge. Support parks, enterprises, large public buildings, etc. to carry out pilot projects with high proportions of new energy in power generation, supply, and consumption, and significantly increase the proportion of new energy power consumption. In national and provincial economic development zones with basic facilities, create green energy pilot parks in which 100% of new energy consumption is supplied by renewable energy in a market-oriented manner.
 (XI) Promote the integration and innovation of business formats. Promote the cross-industry integration of renewable energy with industries such as industry, transportation, construction, agriculture, and forestry, and promote the deep-level and three-dimensional development of photovoltaic sand control, photovoltaic corridors, and marine ranches, so as to form an innovative alternative development situation with deep integration and continuous 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 formats that adapt to clean, efficient, and safe energy substitution. Encourage business model innovation that can promote the substitution of multiple varieties, fields, and forms of renewable energy, vigorously develop integrated energy services that can support efficient coordination of supply and demand, and accelerate the implementation of new business models such as vehicle-grid interaction and electric carbon asset management.

V. Strengthening the protection measures for renewable energy substitution
 (XII) Improve laws, regulations and standards. Establish and improve laws and regulations that support the priority use of renewable energy, and clarify the rights, obligations and legal responsibilities of various entities in the development and use of renewable energy in conjunction with the formulation and revision of the Energy Law, the Renewable Energy Law, the Electricity Law, and the Energy Conservation Law. Accelerate the improvement of the relevant standards system in the field of renewable energy. In conjunction with the formulation and revision of standards in key areas, incorporate the alternative use of renewable energy into the green and low-carbon development standards and regulations system in various fields. Strengthen the implementation of standards and regulations and promote the evaluation of implementation results.
  13. Improve the green energy consumption mechanism. Fully implement the requirement that non-fossil energy is not included in the total energy consumption and intensity control requirements, use green certificates as the basic voucher for renewable energy power consumption accounting, and strengthen the effective connection between green certificates and energy conservation and carbon reduction policies. Improve the responsibility weight mechanism for renewable energy power consumption, implement the consumption responsibility to key energy-consuming units, and strengthen the rigid constraints on the use of green electricity by high-energy-consuming enterprises. Accelerate the establishment of a green power consumption certification mechanism based on green certificates. Promote the connection between green certificates and green electricity and the national carbon market. Incorporate green power consumption requirements into the green product evaluation standards, expand the green product certification catalog, study and formulate relevant policies for government procurement to support green products, and promote products that are mainly produced with green electricity to enjoy green finance and other policies.
  14. Implement policies for science and technology, finance and financial support. Make good use of the relevant policies on the promotion and application of the first major technical equipment and the key projects of the National Key R&D Program to support the R&D and pilot application of key technologies for renewable energy substitution. Establish and improve green financial mechanisms to support various entities in various fields to invest in renewable energy substitution and infrastructure construction and upgrading. Encourage innovation in credit products and services, and provide long-term and stable financing support in accordance with market-oriented and rule-of-law principles.
  15. Improve market mechanisms and price mechanisms. Deepen the market-oriented reform of the on-grid electricity price of new energy, establish and improve the medium- and long-term electricity, spot and ancillary service market trading mechanisms that adapt to the characteristics of renewable energy, support renewable energy power generation projects to conduct direct transactions with various users and sign multi-year power purchase and sales agreements with users. Promote renewable energy power generation or comprehensive utilization systems with the ability to provide ancillary services to participate fairly in the ancillary service market. Establish and improve the market mechanism for renewable energy heating, biogas, and clean low-carbon hydrogen. Establish and improve the energy storage price mechanism. For the use of electricity by centralized charging and swapping facilities that implement the two-part electricity price, the demand (capacity) electricity fee will be waived within the prescribed period. Promote the participation of distributed new energy power generation in market-oriented transactions in a stable and orderly manner, 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.
  (XVI) Deepen and promote international cooperation. Strengthen green energy cooperation with countries participating in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, deepen practical cooperation in green energy, and promote the establishment of a number of green energy best practice projects. Establish a statistical analysis platform for international cooperation in clean energy, and promote international cooperation in the research and development of advanced technologies and equipment for renewable energy applications in key areas such as industry, transportation, construction, agriculture and rural areas. Support exchanges on green certificates and green electricity with international organizations, and promote the export of green certificates. Promote the Belt and Road Initiative Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan, and carry out joint research and exchange training.
  (XVII) Strengthen publicity and guidance. Mobilize the whole people to participate in renewable energy substitution activities, organize and carry out renewable energy application training and pilot activities in cities, villages, communities, and parks, vigorously support the sale and use of renewable energy products, and promote residents to practice and promote green lifestyles.

The departments 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 at all levels shall strengthen coordination and cooperation in accordance with their functional division of labor, strengthen overall coordination and supervision and guidance, and promote the implementation of this opinion. All regions should fully recognize the importance and urgency of renewable energy substitution actions, and in light of the actual economic and social development of their regions and the construction of new power systems, effectively accelerate the promotion of renewable energy substitution.