China Three Gorges Renewables Group has announced plans to construct an 8 GW solar farm as part of an ambitious $11 billion integrated energy project. This development comes as global electricity demand is projected to grow by 4% in 2024, the fastest rate in two decades, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The planned solar farm will be the largest in the world, dwarfing current leaders like China’s Ningxia Tenggeli and Golmud Wutumeiren solar farms, each with a capacity of 3 MW, and the 3.5-GW solar farm near Urumqi. In addition to the solar component, the project includes 4 GW of wind power, 5 GWh of energy storage capacity, 200 MW of solar thermal, and 4 GW of coal-fired power. The entire site will be located in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
China Three Gorges Renewables will hold a 56% stake in the project, with Inner Mongolia Energy Group controlling the remaining 44%. The project is set to break ground in September and is expected to be operational by June 2027.
This initiative aligns with the IEA’s report, which forecasts that renewables will rapidly expand in the coming years, with their share of global electricity supply expected to rise from 30% in 2023 to 35% in 2025. Solar power alone is projected to meet roughly half of the global electricity demand growth in 2024 and 2025, with solar and wind combined accounting for up to 75% of this increase.
However, despite the surge in renewable energy, coal-fired power generation is unlikely to decline due to rising demand, especially in China and India. This trend could lead to a slight increase in CO2 emissions from the global power sector in 2024, followed by a potential decline in 2025. The recovery of Chinese hydropower production in early 2024 could also impact coal-fired power generation and emissions.
India is expected to see an 8% increase in power demand this year, driven by strong economic activity and intense heatwaves. China’s demand is projected to grow by more than 6% due to robust activity in the services and industrial sectors, including clean energy manufacturing.
The US is forecast to experience a 3% rebound in electricity demand in 2024 after a decline in 2023, driven by economic growth, rising cooling needs, and an expanding data center sector. The IEA report also highlights uncertainties regarding the electricity demand of data centers, including the pace of deployment and the expanding uses of AI.
In Europe, electricity demand is expected to grow modestly by 1.7% in 2024 after two years of contraction due to the energy crisis.
Dave Jones, Ember’s insight director, responded to the IEA’s report: “We’re heading fast toward an electric future, with so much of the rise in energy demand coming from electricity. Renewable electricity has a dual role – not only to replace coal and gas power plants – but also to meet this rise in electricity demand. Therefore, we need to be building renewables at double speed, to make power sector emissions fall as fast as they need to.”
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