Great potential for China-UK renewable energy cooperation
China is the UK's third largest trading partner. In 2021, the trade volume between China and the UK will reach 118 billion pounds, an increase of 11.3% year-on-year - a figure that reflects the importance of mutual trust between the two countries. China is under the background of the transformation and comprehensive upgrading of its economic growth model, while the UK happens to have leading experience in strategic emerging industries. All walks of life in the two countries realize that "a single tree is difficult to support, but two trees make a forest". Although the backgrounds are very different, the two sides need to work together to achieve win-win cooperation. In particular, cooperation in the field of renewable energy is a very important area of cooperation between China and the UK.
China and the UK have a solid foundation for renewable energy cooperation. The China-UK Energy Dialogue, held annually by China's National Energy Administration and the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2022. The British Embassy in China, the Renewable Energy Professional Committee of the China Circular Economy Association, and the General Institute of Hydropower and Water Resources Planning and Design will hold the 8th China-UK Offshore Wind Power Industry Cooperation Steering Committee Annual Meeting in 2022. In addition, China and the UK pledged in the 10th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue in 2019 to “deepen clean energy cooperation and support the transformation of structured energy”.
Over the past decade, the two governments have provided extensive support for various policy and market cooperation. The UK also supports green finance cooperation, sharing experience in innovative market mechanisms including UK contract for difference auctions, the design and regulation of competitive electricity markets, carbon trading, and renewable energy incentive schemes.
The two governments have also carried out multi-level in-depth cooperation in the technical field, involving the installation and operation and maintenance of deep-sea fixed and floating offshore wind power projects, energy storage design and deployment, inter-provincial HVDC, hydrogen energy production, deployment and application, carbon capture, Utilization and storage, smart grid, power system flexibility, etc.
These have also contributed to the continuous business cooperation between China and the UK. Since 2017, the British government has supported British companies to provide about 1.2 billion pounds of renewable energy exports to more than 30 Chinese projects. The UK also supports the cooperation between the two countries and the promotion of renewable energy projects around the world. In 2019, the UK Department for International Trade and China's National Development and Reform Commission signed a memorandum on cooperation in third countries to support cooperation in sustainable low-carbon projects that meet international standards.
In December 2021, the UK Department for International Trade and Mingyang Smart Energy Group signed a memorandum to support Mingyang to build a blade factory and a wind turbine factory in the UK. Wu Qiaowen, the British trade envoy to China, sees it as an "epoch-making" investment, marking China's deeper participation in the development of the UK's wind power supply chain.
Over the past decade, China has continued to invest in the UK's renewable energy sector. In the past, Chinese investment was mainly equity investment, focusing on offshore wind power projects in the UK, but in recent years it has turned to energy storage projects. For example, with the support of the British government, the National Development and Investment Group invested in the 588MW Bittrex Offshore Wind Power Project and the 1GW Inge Point Offshore Wind Power Project in 2016; the 50MW Everton Onshore Wind Power Project in 2020; Brick Onshore Wind Project.
In the field of energy storage, the United Kingdom has joined hands with Huaneng Group to develop Europe's largest lithium battery energy storage project in Mendi using Sungrow technology, which will be connected to the grid and put into operation in 2021. In February 2022, Trina Energy delivered its first energy storage project in the UK, a 50MW battery storage system in the east of England. The "Investment Map", a one-stop information platform launched by the British government, can recommend more investment opportunities in low-carbon fields to global investors.