Summary

Gansu scored 1.52 to take second place among the 15 Chinese provinces surveyed on Climatescope 2014. Its best performance was on Greenhouse Management Activities Parameter

IV, reflecting its various CDM projects and corporate awareness of policies and initiatives to reduce emissions and increase energy efficiency.

Located in northwest China, Gansu’s mostly arid land mass is similar in size to California and its GDP in 2013 was $103.5bn.

In the latest provincial 12th Five-Year Plan, development of renewable energy was identified as one of five ‘pillar industries’ that will boost economic growth.

Gansu already gets a relatively high proportion of its energy from renewables: in 2013, it generated 15.8% of the total 111.1TWh, of which 53.5% was sourced from wind. Coal accounted for the large majority (59.9%), with the remainder coming from large hydro. The province has installed renewable energy capacity of 9GW, which represents 30.2% of the total.

The province received $9bn in clean energy investment in 2013, a big slice of the $30.6bn recorded since 2006. Of this cumulative total, wind and solar PV accounted for the large majority in approximately equal shares.

Gansu installed more PV capacity in 2013 than any other Chinese province, accounting for 32% of total ground-mounted capacity added nationally. Wind power saw a marked reduction in curtailment, which allowed full-load generation hours to increase by 10%. Proposed transmission lines connecting Gansu to Hunan should further reduce curtailment.