Summary

Jilin ranked 11th among the 15 Chinese provinces included in Climatescope 2014. It scored 1.07 and performed best in Enabling Framework Parameter I, achieving its highest scores for clean energy policies and power sector structure.

Located in the northeast of China, it is a small province with a nominal GDP of $214.4bn in 2013, or 2.1% of China’s total economy. Agriculture and heavy industry dominate, with services contributing 34% to provincial GDP.

The province attracted $197.5m in clean energy investments in 2013, a small fraction of the USD $8.8bn invested between 2006 and 2013. An excellent wind resource has encouraged significant growth some 68% of investment since 2006 has been in wind and capacity stands at around 4GW. Small hydropower accounts for an additional 500MW, taking total installed capacity to 4.5GW.

In 2013, Jilin generated 80.2% of its electricity (a total of 71.4TWh) from coal. Renewables made up a substantial part of the power mix, corresponding to 10.7% of generation and 19% of installed capacity.

Jilin is a victim of its early success as a wind market in that it now has a very congested grid and one of China’s highest curtailment rates for renewable energy. As a result, The National Energy Administration has not approved any new large wind projects since 2012. Without resolving its grid issues, the province is unlikely to become a major new market for wind or solar projects; however, improvements are underway that could improve the outlook for new development.