By the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), Wushan aims to reach 3 GW of clean energy capacity, positioning itself as a major renewable energy base in the Three Gorges reservoir area.
A worker installs wind turbines at the 60-MW Dafengkou wind power project in Wushan, Chongqing. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)
Chongqing - Chongqing set a record this year with renewables reaching 45.6% of installed capacity, ensuring summer power security and marking a major shift from coal to clean energy.
Officials attribute the progress to the commissioning of major ultra-high-voltage transmission projects, which have strengthened external energy inflows, and to the rapid build-out of local wind, solar, hydro, and storage facilities.
The transformation is especially visible in Wushan, Chongqing. Once reliant on coal, the county saw its mines and thermal power plant shut down between 2004 and 2005. “In the past, coal was our pillar industry,” a local official recalled. “Now, the same ridges are turning wind into power.”
Wushan’s natural advantages, such as about 1,100 hours of sunshine a year, wind speeds above 6 m/s, and roughly 1,900 hours of usable wind power, have supported large-scale renewable development. To date, six wind and solar projects have been completed, producing around 680 million kWh annually and generating 340 million yuan in economic output.
By the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), Wushan aims to reach 3 GW of clean energy capacity, positioning itself as a major renewable energy base in the Three Gorges reservoir area.
Another step in boosting renewables, Chongqing launched a “one-million-kilowatt rooftop distributed PV” program in 2024, tapping over 200 million m² of urban and rural rooftops for solar power.
One prominent project is at Fuling Panhuasheng Group, where a 50.2 MW rooftop PV system now produces 40 million kWh annually, covering 10% of the company’s power needs and cutting CO₂ emissions by 30,000 tonnes each year.
Other installations include a 20 MW solar carport at Changan Automobile’s Yubei plant, generating 22 million kWh annually to cover 30% of factory demand, saving over 12 million yuan in electricity costs and cutting 18,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year.
In the Liangjiang New Area, BOE’s distributed PV system, with 46.5 MW of capacity, had delivered 69.2 million kWh of clean power to the company by February 2025, saving about 19.55 million yuan in annual electricity bills.
Citywide, rooftop solar generation reached 1.13 billion kWh in 2024, up 259% from the previous year, avoiding 1.02 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
While renewables grow, coal remains a backup but is declining. Hechuan’s Shuanghuai coal plant hit a generation record in 2024 but expects a 10% drop this year, as coal power costs about 0.1 yuan/kWh more than wind or solar, said deputy Zhou Yun, the plant’s deputy general manager.
To adapt, the plant built a 480,000 kWh grid-side standalone energy storage facility in just 88 days, the largest in southwest China, able to meet peak-hour demand for 280,000 households.
Across Chongqing, grid-side storage capacity reached 1.4 GW / 2.8 GWh by the end of 2024, equivalent to the peak capacity of a large coal plant. The build-out has also driven the growth of a local storage-equipment industry, with major players based in Tongliang District and Liangjiang New Area.
Under current plans, the city aims to expand storage capacity to 2.2 GW by 2027 and 3 GW by 2030, further strengthening its ability to integrate clean power while maintaining supply security.
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