910m kWh of green power purchased on 1st day of rollout

As many as 30 companies have purchased 910 million kilowatt hours of green power through the Guangzhou Power Exchange Center on the first day that China rolled out a pilot scheme for green power trading on Tuesday, said China Southern Power Grid, one of the country's two major power grids.

Of the 910 million kilowatt hours, 300 million are green power from solar energy and 610 are from wind power. The longest purchase terms are 10 years, it said.

The National Development and Reform Commission launched a pilot direct trading of green power between corporate consumers and renewable energy generators on Sept 7, in a move to further boost renewable energy development.

Under the pilot scheme, users who have demands for green power will directly trade with wind power and photovoltaic power generation enterprises, while other renewable energy generation enterprises will be included in the scheme step by step.

Companies including China General Nuclear Power Group and Internet and the technology conglomerate Tencent are among the companies purchasing the green power trading on Tuesday.

It is expected the wind and solar power in the southern parts of China will see rapid growth in the coming 10 years, and that the installed capacity for the new energy will reach 250 million kilowatts by 2030 and become the dominant energy for the southern parts of China, said China Southern Power Grid.

China Southern Power Grid has business covering China's Guangdong province, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Yunnan province, Guizhou province and Hainan province, while the other major power grid operator in China, State Grid Corp of China, covers the remaining provinces and regions in the country.