China has set a massive target of 160 GW of solar and wind energy capacity additions in 2023, up 13.5% from the actual installations in 2022.

The country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) said it would step up efforts to boost new energy development to meet its green commitments.

China aims to raise the proportion of wind and solar power in total electricity consumption to 15.3% from 13.8% last year and the share of non-fossil fuel energy to 18.3% from 17.4% in 2022.

According to an International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report, China clearly established itself as a clean energy leader adding 141 GW of renewable energy capacity in 2022.

In the first nine months of 2022, solar capacity additions alone accounted for 52.6 GW.

Other renewable energy leaders needed to catch up. The United States, for instance, installed just 32 GW of renewable capacity last year.

In a guideline, the NEA said China will also steadily promote the construction of offshore wind power bases and develop offshore solar projects this year.

The NEA said the proportion of non-fossil energy in installed power generation capacity would be increased to about 51.9% from 47.3% in 2022.

By 2035, China aims to have 80% of all new electricity from non-fossil sources.

In January, state-owned China Three Gorges Corporation began constructing the first phase of its 16 GW power project, comprising 8 GW of solar, 4 GW of wind, and 4 GW from other sources. The ¥80 billion (~$11.81 billion) project is in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of Ordos.

According to NEA head Zhang Jianhua, China needed to promote electricity as a major energy source in key areas.

With a larger proportion of power generated from new energy sources connecting to the grid, more efforts were needed to encourage big data centers’ involvement in the power system’s management.

China will also take action to ensure energy security, with total generation expected to be equivalent to about 4.75 billion metric tons of coal this year.

Zhang said the NEA would work to improve the reliability of non-fossil energy to form a diversified clean energy supply system that includes wind, solar, hydropower, biomass, nuclear, and hydrogen. Pumped storage and other energy storage technologies would also be accelerated.