China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of energy, and ranks first in its wind and solar power installation capacity. However, serious wind and solar curtailment in China has significantly hindered the development and utilization of renewable energy. To address problems in the consumption of renewable energy, this paper analyzes four key factors affecting the capacity of power generated from renewable energy sources: power balance, po. China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of energy, and ranks first in its wind and solar power installation capacity. However, serious wind and solar curtailment in China has significantly hindered the development and utilization of renewable energy. To address problems in the consumption of renewable energy, this paper analyzes four key factors affecting the capacity of power generated from renewable energy sources: power balance, power regulation performance, transmission capacity, and load level. Focusing on these bottlenecks, we propose seven solutions: centralized and distributed development of renewable energy, improving the peak-load regulation flexibility of thermal power, increasing the proportion of gas turbines and pumped-hydropower storage, construction of transmission channels and a flexible smart grid developing demand response and virtual power plants, adopting new energy active support and energy storage, and establishing appropriate policies and market mechanisms. The Chinese Government and energy authorities have issued a series of policies and measures, and in the past three years, China has had remarkable achievements in the adoption of renewable energy. The rate of idle wind capacity decreased from 17% in 2016 to 7% in 2018, and that of solar decreased from 10% in 2016 to 3% in 2018.••BottlenecksCountermeasuresIdle wind and solar powerRenewable energyFossil fuel depletion, environmental pollution, and climate change have become common problems. The clean and efficient utilization of traditional energy sources, development and utilization of new energy sources, improvement in power system flexibility, and development of intelligent power systems are coping strategies on which most countries have reached consensus.China's power industry ranks first in the world in terms of the scale of development. In 2018, the installed capacity reached 1.9 × 109 kW, and power generation totaled 7 × 1012 kW⋅h. China's power supply structure and power generation capacity in 2018 and 2019 are illustrated in Fig. 1, Fig. 2, which show that the proportion of non-fossil-fuel-based (hereafter, non-fossil) energy installed increased by 1% and power generation increased by 1.6% from 2018 to 2019. In China, the two main sources of renewable energy are wind power and photovoltaic (solar) power. China is the world leader in the development of wind and solar power generation. By the end of 2018, installed wind power and solar power were 1.84 × 108 and 1.74 × 108 kW, respectively, accounting for 9.7% and 9.2% of total installed power. In addition, the power generation of wind and solar total 3.658 × 1011 and 1.769 × 1011 kW⋅h, respectively, accounting for 5.2% and 2.5% of total power generation,. As shown in Fig. 3, Fig. 4, China's wind power and solar installations increased 15-fold an. The basic characteristic of power systems is the real-time balance between the supply of and demand for energy. With the development and utilization of wind power, solar power, and other renewable energy sources, which have strong intermittence, the power system must achieve a balance between intermittent power generation (supply) and a randomly fl. 3.1. Promote centralized and distributed collaborationThe first solution is to adopt the principle of both centralized and distributed development, with an emphasis on strengthening the development and utilization of distributed renewable energy resources in the central and eastern regions. On the one hand, China's renewable energy resources are concentrated in the three northern regions, which is suitable for adopting a centralized development mode. However, while this mode can increase development and utilization efforts, it should also combine a district's own resources, local load characteristics, and renewable energy output characteristics in different regions. Moreover, the construction of an outgoing channel should be completed as soon as possible to enhance the optimal allocation of resources in large power grids.At the same time, China's east–central and southern regions have more capacity for consumption than the three northern regions. Hence, the development of wind power should be intensified in areas with stronger consumption capacity or in load centers, especially the development and utilization of offshore wind power, so as to improve the nearby consumption capacity of wind power.Table 2, Table 3 show the operation of wind and solar power generation in China in the first half of 2019, indicating that a large amount of wind power is idle in the three norther.
