Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Construction and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued Decree No.42 "Measures for Implementing the Minimum Proportion Target of Renewable Energy Consumption and the Weight System of Responsibility for Renewable Energy Power Consumption" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"), which came into effect on August 1, 2026.
The Measures set up a new pattern of "rigid obligation at the consumer end + territorial responsibility at the consumer end" driven by two wheels. The macro-requirement of carbon peak and carbon neutralization target is broken down into quantifiable and assessable rigid constraints, which lays a solid institutional foundation for the green and low-carbon transformation of energy in the 15th Five-Year Plan and even in the longer term.
At the main level of assessment coverage, the new policy defines electrolytic aluminium, steel, cement, polysilicon , new data centers, 5G base stations, charging facilities and other areas with high energy consumption and high electricity consumption growth as the key control objects.
Among them , polysilicon , lithium power manufacturing and other new energy industry chains are named to implement "green to green", forcing the upstream of the industry chain to use green power, forming a closed-loop of upstream and downstream collaborative carbon reduction; As the core of electricity consumption increment, the computing power industry will increase the demand for electricity by 100 billion kilowatt-hours annually in the "15th Five-Year Plan", all of which are required to match the renewable energy consumption index, directly stimulating the demand for distributed energy storage, household and industrial and commercial optical storage.
It is worth noting that, compared with the previous single assessment of green power consumption, the Measures for the first time included non-electric consumption in the target assessment of the minimum proportion of renewable energy consumption. There are three main considerations:
First, the energy law clearly put forward the relevant requirements. The Energy Law, which came into effect in 2025, clearly stipulates that "the competent energy department under the State Council, in conjunction with the relevant departments under the State Council, shall formulate and organize the implementation of the minimum proportion target of renewable energy in energy consumption", which includes both renewable energy electricity consumption and renewable energy non-electricity consumption.
Second, it helps to solve the problem of power grid absorption and promote the better use of renewable energy. At present, the pressure of new energy absorption in China is increasing, facing the contradiction of limited local absorption capacity in resource-rich areas and increasing constraints of large-scale long-distance transmission and absorption, expanding the non-electric utilization of renewable energy is not only the need to alleviate the pressure of power grid absorption and break the bottleneck of power absorption, but also the need to expand the utilization of renewable energy. It is also an inherent requirement for further promoting the safe and reliable substitution of renewable energy and creating a new situation of high-quality development.
Third, it is the core measure to solve the current problems in the development of non-electric utilization and support the development of non-electric utilization. After years of cultivation, China's green hydrogen, ammonia and alcohol industries have developed rapidly, and initially have the basis for large-scale development and utilization. As of the first quarter of 2026, the annual production capacity of green hydrogen, green ammonia, green methanol and sustainable aviation fuel in China is about 250000 tons, 700000 tons, 380000 tons and 1.7 million tons, respectively.
At the same time, the market competitiveness of non-electric utilization of renewable energy is still weak, and the green value lacks effective transmission and market reflection, so it is necessary to further form stable demand through policy guidance. Including non-electricity consumption in the assessment is conducive to accelerating the stimulation of non-electricity consumption demand, promoting the early realization of large-scale development, and providing strong support for expanding terminal decarbonization scenarios, building a new energy system and building an energy power.
In addition, in terms of specific implementation, we will coordinate the actual development of renewable energy non-electric industries and steadily promote the construction of statistical accounting system. If the conditions are relatively mature, such as hydrogen ammonia alcohol production by renewable energy, it can be included in the monitoring and assessment scope earlier; if the statistical accounting system needs to be improved, such as renewable energy heating (refrigeration), it can be considered to be included in the monitoring and assessment scope when the conditions are mature.
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