To the sea

Changyi has been one of the leaders in a national drive to grow the renewable energy mix in order to reduce China's economic dependence on fossil fuels.

Since the early 2000s, the manufacturing hub on China's east coast has been harnessing local wind power resources — which can blow 2,800 hours a year on land and 3,300 hours at sea — to meet its fast-growing electricity needs. Over the last decade, annual industrial electricity consumption in Changyi more than doubled from 2.39 billion kilowatt-hours to 4.9 billion kWh, according to government figures.

In recent years, the city has begun experimenting with more efficient land use for sprawling projects.

This can be seen at the expansive Weifang Huabao Textile Co.

In 2022, the company constructed a 62.3-MW solar project aimed at reducing production costs and lowering its carbon footprint.

The project took less than six months to complete. It generates 70 million kWh of electricity a year — equivalent to the energy produced by burning 29,000 metric tons of coal.

In addition to meeting its own power needs, the textile mill was able to sell 20 million kWh of electricity back to the local power grid last year.

Zhang Yuhong, deputy director of Changyi's development and reform bureau, the local economic planner, said such projects have helped Huabao and other export-oriented businesses meet foreign countries' environmental rules and boost the city's manufacturing competitiveness.

"Recently, we approved another rooftop solar project for a casting facility," she said. "Since the factory is an energy-intensive operation, they're really keen on this project."

Local officials have described such projects as distributed photovoltaic, emphasizing their utilization of otherwise idle land for developing green initiatives. These efforts date back to 2016 when the local government commissioned a 100-MW solar farm on a 200-hectare fish farm.