Central Media Looks at Yunnan | Economic Daily Praises Yunnan's Green Energy Unleashing New Development Momentum

March 13

“Economics Daily” Focuses on Yunnan

Accelerating the Transformation of Green Energy Advantages into Industrial and Development Strengths

Article titled “Yunnan: Green Energy Unlocks New Development Momentum”

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Recently, leading global power battery company CATL and the Yunnan provincial government signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement in Kunming, planning to invest in and build a green lithium battery manufacturing base in the Dianzhong New Area, and will collaborate across multiple fields around “Green Electricity + Advanced Manufacturing.”

CATL’s establishment in Yunnan is a microcosm of the province’s efforts to accelerate turning green energy advantages into industrial and developmental strengths. In recent years, Yunnan has focused heavily on industrial development, with electricity becoming a key support for industrial growth in many areas. By 2025, the green aluminum industry in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is expected to surpass 100 billion yuan in output value, reaching 101.6 billion yuan. The aluminum industry strongly supports local industrial development, driving the entire society’s electricity consumption in the region to continuously reach new highs. Li Yongzhong, member of the Wenshan CPC Standing Committee and executive deputy governor, said the province will fully utilize policies, accelerate downstream project capacity releases, and precisely attract investment around green electricity consumption, to attract high-value-added, high-electricity-load green industries, achieving synchronized growth of electricity use and industrial development.

Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture has fully tapped into its rich wind and solar resources, with a total approved new energy installed capacity reaching 19.24 million kilowatts, and last year, green energy accounted for 97.4% of total power generation. Relying on its green energy advantages, the prefecture seized the opportunity during the concentrated construction period of new energy projects, vigorously developing industries such as green silicon, copper, titanium, vanadium, as well as new energy and energy storage equipment manufacturing. Wei Xin, member of the Chuxiong CPC Standing Committee and vice governor, said that as green energy installed capacity expands, Chuxiong is actively exploring nearby consumption of new energy, making good use of direct connection policies for green electricity, and planning projects like “Green Electricity + Computing Power Center” in Chuxiong City and Dayao County, tailored to local conditions.

It is reported that Yunnan has established a leading green energy system nationwide. By the end of last year, total power installed capacity exceeded 170 million kilowatts, with green power capacity accounting for over 90%, and carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour only 0.13 kilograms. Guo Jinhua, deputy director of the Yunnan Development and Reform Commission, said that as new energy installed capacity continues to grow, the supply and demand situation is changing, requiring diversified consumption methods, and the value of green electricity needs to be comprehensively enhanced.

In response, Yunnan has issued the “Several Measures to Promote Green Power Consumption in Yunnan Province,” to accelerate the formation of a diversified consumption pattern and build a new “source-grid-load-storage” coordination system, supporting the construction of a new power system. Yunnan continues to strengthen and optimize resource-based industries such as aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, and non-ferrous metals, promoting the alignment of new energy construction with the commissioning of new loads. Enterprises with a year-on-year industrial electricity growth of over 6% in the first quarter will receive electricity fee rewards to promote stable industrial electricity growth.

Based on resource endowments and comparative advantages, Yunnan is deeply planning the development of key advantageous industries such as refined processing of non-ferrous metals mainly aluminum and copper, and rare and precious metals like indium, germanium, and platinum. It is efficiently utilizing phosphorus resources to develop new energy batteries and fine phosphorus chemical industries, and fully building industries for green food and traditional Chinese medicine deep processing. While strengthening resource industries, Yunnan will also cultivate new energy consumption scenarios, expand absorption space, guide green electricity toward high-value-added industries, and improve resource utilization efficiency; promote integration of “Green Electricity + Smart Computing” and “Green Electricity + Hydrogen Production,” explore new models of hydrogen production from waste and surplus electricity, and deploy new energy storage in resource-rich areas.

By the end of 2025, Yunnan will announce its first batch of four green electricity direct connection projects, located in Chuxiong, Wenshan, and other areas, involving smart computing centers, graphite anode materials, aluminum alloys, and ore processing. These four projects are expected to facilitate local consumption of about 1.1 billion kWh of green electricity, promote integration of green power with industry, and enhance the green competitiveness of enterprise products.

Long Yu, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, said that focusing on key directions such as computing infrastructure and green hydrogen, the department will work with relevant agencies to increase investment attraction, introduce related enterprises into Yunnan, and promote policies to accelerate industrial power consumption growth, helping enterprises reach full production and expand output; strengthen project guidance, coordinate to resolve difficulties, and push for early completion and power use.

The power grid is a crucial hub connecting green electricity production and consumption. By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Yunnan’s power grid had built over 2,000 public substations of 35 kV and above, with high-voltage transmission lines of 110 kV and above covering all 129 counties (cities, districts) in the province, totaling over 100,000 kilometers of lines. Zhang Ya, deputy general manager of Yunnan Power Grid Co., Ltd., said they will innovate electricity services, lead enterprises to use green power, support industries like hydrogen ammonia and smart computing to implement direct green power connections, actively guide the layout of computing and hydrogen ammonia industries in new energy-rich areas, encourage nearby consumption of new energy, and innovate market-based trading and services for green electricity. They will also leverage Yunnan’s policy advantage of the first in the country to transfer surplus conventional hydropower green certificates free of charge, effectively supporting green power consumption for emerging industries like hydrogen ammonia and smart computing.

Yunnan’s abundant green energy provides vital support for the region’s green, low-carbon economic and social development, regional coordinated growth, and energy security. The province will continue to expand green power export channels through internal and external connectivity. “Make full use of both the external and overseas markets to expand the consumption of Yunnan’s green electricity within the State Grid’s East China and Chengdu regions, actively build an international energy corridor, and push Yunnan’s power trade with South Asia and Southeast Asia to new heights,” said Chen Fan, deputy director of the Yunnan Energy Bureau.