Policies related to the implementation of regional new energy industry projects

According to the requirements of the Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission's "Notice on Accelerating the Coordinated Development of New Energy and Related Industries" (New Development and Reform Regulation [2023] No. 2), the Notice on Issuing the "Procedures and Requirements for the Application of New Energy Projects" and other documents, market-oriented new energy projects must determine the project implementation based on the new electricity load in the county (city) where they are to be located and whether they have grid access, project land and other conditions that match the new project.

1. Conditions for the implementation of new energy projects

(I) Have the conditions for introducing new energy projects. Each county (city) shall form a "one map" of suitable new energy project development in the county (city) based on the status of completed new energy projects, projects under construction, newly planned projects, and 220KV and below power grid access points and access capacity, and exclude restrictive factors such as ecological red lines, and attract new energy projects based on local development conditions.

(II) Have “standard land” for project acceptance. Each county (city) shall determine the construction scale of the proposed new energy project based on the existing “standard land” situation. Under the current technical conditions, about 30,000 mu of “standard land” is required to accept a 1GW photovoltaic power generation project.

(III) Having the ability to absorb new electricity loads. Each county (city) shall apply for the scale of new energy projects based on the electricity consumption (new load) of new electricity projects. For market-oriented new energy projects to be introduced, the construction scale, construction location, total investment, planned start and completion time, and maximum electricity load of the new electricity projects shall be clearly stated. Projects that have not been started in accordance with laws and regulations cannot be used as new electricity loads.

(IV) The owner enterprise meets the requirements. Each county (city) shall review the information submitted by the enterprise, verify the qualifications, funds, credit information, etc. of the proposed cooperative enterprise, understand the progress of the new energy project construction currently undertaken by the enterprise, conduct comprehensive analysis and screen the cooperative partners, ensure that the proposed cooperative enterprise meets the cooperation requirements in all aspects, and avoid investment risks.

2. Implementation path of new energy projects

(I) The low-carbon transformation path of the park. The park shall declare and clarify the green electricity demand in the annual additional electricity consumption scale of the newly landed industrial projects in the park, the main body of the new energy project construction, etc., and the power generated by the new energy projects shall be completely absorbed by the new load projects. For example: the 100,000-kilowatt photovoltaic project of Awati County Yueshui Power Energy Co., Ltd. plans to build a new 100,000-kilowatt photovoltaic power station, and at the same time, it is equipped with a 10,000-kilowatt/20,000-kilowatt-hour electrochemical energy storage facility, and the first-year power generation is about 150 million kilowatt-hours. The project adopts the low-carbon transformation path of the industrial park. The corresponding load park is Awati Industrial Park. The new load projects include Awati Baolong Textile Technology Co., Ltd., Xinjiang Zhongfu Textile Technology Co., Ltd., Xinjiang Lihua (Group) Co., Ltd., Aksu Surong Textile Co., Ltd., Xinjiang Shunxin Textile Technology Co., Ltd., Aksu Pumei Textile Technology Co., Ltd. and other new textile production line projects; the power generated by the new energy projects is completely absorbed by the new load projects. Matters that need to be emphasized: The energy storage configuration scale is 10% and more than 2 hours; all electricity produced by new energy is consumed by the new load in the park. After the load is withdrawn, the park should promptly add an equal amount of new load to ensure the normal production of new energy.

(II) Path to large-scale hydrogen production from new energy sources. Hydrogen is produced by electrolyzing water through photovoltaic power generation, and the electricity generated is consumed by the hydrogen production project; to produce 10,000 tons of hydrogen, a photovoltaic power plant of 150,000 kilowatts is required. For example: Kuqa's annual production of 20,000 tons of green hydrogen demonstration project, with a total investment of 2.962 billion yuan, plans to build a new photovoltaic power station with an installed capacity of 300,000 kilowatts and an annual power generation of 618 million kilowatt-hours, an electrolytic water hydrogen production plant with an annual production capacity of 20,000 tons, a hydrogen storage spherical tank with a hydrogen storage scale of about 210,000 standard cubic meters, a hydrogen transmission pipeline with a hydrogen transmission capacity of 28,000 standard cubic meters per hour, and supporting power transmission and transformation facilities; on August 30, 2023, the project was officially put into production, with an estimated annual output of 15,000-16,000 tons, which is not at full capacity, and all the green hydrogen produced will be consumed by Sinopec Tahe Refining and Chemical Company. Matters that need to be emphasized: 1. The hydrogen production project and the new energy project are the same entity; 2. The grid absorption part is provided with 20% and 2 hours of supporting energy storage (the grid absorption part is the reward part, and photovoltaic hydrogen projects that are not built according to policy requirements will not be given grid-connected photovoltaic scale rewards); 3. The green hydrogen produced by the project must take into account downstream application scenarios to form a closed industrial chain.

(III) Shared energy storage path. By charging on the public grid during valley hours and supplying electricity to the public grid during peak hours, the price difference of electricity can be obtained. For example, the 500,000 kW/2 million kW-hour grid-type energy storage project in Wushi County has a total investment of RMB 4.45 billion, of which RMB 4.45 billion is invested in fixed assets. It mainly constructs 200,000 kW/800,000 kW-hour all-vanadium liquid flow battery energy storage, 200,000 kW/800,000 kW-hour iron phosphate battery energy storage and 100,000 kW/400,000 kW-hour compressed air energy storage. The project is a supporting energy storage power station project for the photovoltaic park. The project land area is 35.2526 hectares. The project is scheduled to start construction before October 30, 2023 and is scheduled to be completed and put into operation before December 30, 2024. Matters that need to be emphasized: Shared energy storage projects do not configure new energy installed capacity; the energy storage scale is not less than 50,000 kW/20 kWh (4 hours); the electricity price compensation for independent energy storage capacity does not include the leased capacity.

(IV) Other paths. The pumped storage path declares the supporting new energy scale in batches, and needs to build supporting energy storage of 20% of the declared scale and no less than 2 hours; if the new energy scale is declared once when the pumped storage project is completed, there is no need to configure energy storage. The construction of pumped storage projects needs to be scientifically planned according to the regional geological and hydrological conditions, and the project owner shall determine it through public bidding. The paths of increasing production and greening in the oil and gas industry, flexible transformation of coal-fired power units, conversion of self-provided power plants to public power supply, replacement of self-provided power plants with green electricity, and construction of supporting transmission projects by power generation enterprises are generally declared and implemented by the operating enterprises themselves, and there is little room for investment cooperation.

3. Recommendation for new energy project application

(I) Self-application by the enterprise (park). If an enterprise intends to construct a new energy project and applies to be included in the autonomous region's new energy project list, it shall submit a project application to the county (city) Development and Reform Commission where the project is to be constructed, including the basic information of the proposed project and the construction path to be adopted by the project.

(II) Verification and recommendation by the county (city) development and reform commission. The county (city) development and reform commission will recommend the new energy project to the regional development and reform commission based on the current status of the county (city)'s new energy industry, grid access points and capacity, the project's "standard land" conditions (the scope of the project's land, coordinates, ecological red lines, exclusion of limiting factors such as covered mines, and the handling of preliminary procedures for the project's land, forests and grasslands), and verify the project owner's credit information. After the owner's materials are preliminarily reviewed and qualified, the county (city) development and reform commission will recommend the new energy project to the regional development and reform commission.

(III) Verification and recommendation by the regional development and reform commission

1. The regional development and reform commission estimates the growth of new electricity consumption from 2023 to 2025 based on the actual growth rate of local electricity consumption in the past three years. After deducting the new power generation after the new energy projects currently under construction are put into operation, according to the requirements of the 30 measures of the ten mechanisms of the new Development and Reform Regulation No. 10 (2022), the annual construction scale of new energy projects that matches the new electricity consumption of the year is recommended.