Current status, challenges, and perspectives of Sichuan's renewable energy development in Southwest China

Sichuan Province is one of the most important economic inland areas and is characterized by an abundance of renewable energy resources in the form of solar, wind, biomass, and, in particular, hydropower. After the rapid growth of installed hydropower capacity during the past decade, the non hydro renewable energy resource development is booming in Sichuan Province. This development is bringing about a series of problems as well. In this paper, we give an overview of Sichuan's renewable energy development in the past five years, analyze the existing problems, and examine the underlying causes in terms of environment, market, technology, and policy. On that basis, we propose a method for future renewable energy development in Sichuan and suggest that Sichuan's government should improve the pricing mechanism and the mandatory share policy for non-hydro renewable energy. Additionally, R&D on the plateau type of wind turbines and the smart micro-grid should be strengthened. Finally, given the mature hydropower industry in Sichuan, the combined operation of wind-hydro and solar-hydro plants is recommended to improve the stability of renewable electricity generation output. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.