A fl ock of sheep graze at the photovoltaic park in the Talatan Gobi Desert in the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Northwest China's Qinghai Province. File photo: VCG

The cumulative green electricity trading volume of Northwest China's Qinghai Province has surpassed 20 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), reaching 20.09 billion kWh, equivalent to reducing more than 15 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday, representing another milestone in green power development for China's inland regions. 

Qinghai possesses strong advantages in clean energy and was the first province in China to achieve a "dual-dominance" structure in which new energy accounts for the majority of both installed capacity and power generation, said the report. 

As of the end of April, Qinghai's total installed power capacity reached 85.278 million kilowatts, of which clean energy accounted for 93.3 percent and new energy accounted for 74.1 percent, laying a solid foundation for green electricity trading, per the report.

Qinghai's first green electricity market transaction took place in July 2022. Since then, the province's green electricity trading volume has grown rapidly year by year, increasing from 533 million kWh in 2022 to 9.895 billion kWh in 2025.

China has been actively advancing power market-oriented reforms, using market mechanisms to promote renewable energy consumption, said the Xinhua report. As an important part of the reform, green electricity trading refers to power transactions based on green electricity products, meeting the zero-carbon electricity demand of domestic energy-intensive and export-oriented enterprises while also providing green power consumption certification, according to Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the Guangming Daily reported on Sunday that the Qinghai-Henan ±800 kilovolt ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission project had transmitted a cumulative 100.017 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to reducing the consumption of about 35 million tons of standard coal and cutting more than 96 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

On May 1, the power grids of Qinghai and East China's Fujian Province carried out their first cross-provincial medium- and long-term electricity transaction. During the upcoming 31-day trading cycle, Qinghai will transmit a total of 35 million kWh of green electricity to Fujian, which will be the first time that Qinghai's green electricity travels more than 2,500 kilometers to power Fujian Province, according to another Xinhua report.

With this deal, the destination coverage of Qinghai's medium- and long-term outbound electricity trading has expanded to 23 provincial-level regions across China, the report noted.

Global Times