China’s investment in renewable energy pays off

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone. Energy prices around the world have been skyrocketing ever since the start of the war in Iran, but at least one country is weathering the storm better than others. In China, a years-long investment in renewable energy is beginning to pay off. In tonight's Prime Focus, ABC's Brick Planet travels to rural China to show us the massive solar farms that are changing the face of energy consumption in that country. [00:00:24] Speaker 2: This is China's northwestern Gansu province. For centuries, a harsh, unforgiving sun scorched this ancient Silk Road corridor into an inhospitable land of temples, trekkers and giant sand dunes. Once a punishing burden, today those blinding rays fuel rows of solar panels stretching to the horizon. A shimmering sea of glass and steel that is fast becoming one of Beijing's most powerful buffers against global energy shocks. China is really making the most of this arid landscape. These solar panels, they stretch out for miles. You can see why this is known as China's green power bank. And right now, it is paying dividends. As conflict in Iran rattles global oil markets and sends energy prices surging, China's big bet on green tech is paying off. So I've got to put on my protective helmet now because we're going to a little bit closer towards the tower to the observation deck. This is China's first major solar thermal plant, just outside of the desert oasis town of Donghuang. So proud of their milestone, it is now open to tourists. You can see why part of the reason China has been able to offset the shock from the Iran war, from the Strait of Hormuz being closed, is because of its commitment to renewables like this. A gigantic thermal power plant rising out of the desert. These massive structures use mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto central towers, producing heat that can be stored and converted into electricity around the clock. You can see the streams of light there. They are beaming onto that tower, which as you can see, a circle halo on the top. So here are how many mirrors? A 12,000 mirror, she's saying, 12,000 mirrors are all around us. I can hear them move, and you can see it slightly move. These are huge mirrored panels, and they move depending on the direction of the sunlight. They track that sunlight, they redirect it at that panel over there, which heats up the molten salt and generates extreme temperatures and power. The tour guide tells us the plant can generate enough electricity in one hour for an average family's usage for 42 years. Because it's so bright here, and there's sun almost every day. Together with wind farms and traditional solar arrays, they form one of the largest renewable energy clusters on the planet. Most crucially because China recently upgraded its entire power grid. Energy produced out here in the far west, hinterlands, can serve China's power-hungry cities on the coast. And the timing is critical. With instability in the Middle East threatening oil supplies, countries heavily reliant on imports are scrambling. But China, the world's largest energy consumer, has spent the past decade aggressively diversifying, and now also the largest producer of renewable energy, according to the International Energy Agency. [00:03:34] Speaker 3: The ramp-up really picked up in the last five years. That made wind and solar combined as a mix of energy supply to increase really quickly for the last five years, and now become quite meaningful. [00:03:46] Speaker 2: That shift accelerated after the global energy crisis in 2022, when Beijing doubled down on renewables in a bid to protect its energy security. [00:03:55] Speaker 3: Almost 50 percent of China's oil import comes from the Middle East, including Iran. So what's happened since late February has obviously caused some disruption on energy supply for China. But the good thing is because how quickly renewables have stepped up as a mix of energy supply throughout the years, and which because how cheaply and competitively that solar and wind, including, has come in as an energy cost that has allowed China to kept energy prices, particularly on electricity prices, relatively low. [00:04:29] Speaker 2: More than half of China's new power capacity now comes from renewable sources, and here in Gansu, that transformation is visible everywhere. As we're driving along here in Gansu province, we're seeing more of these towers. They kind of pop up like suns in the desert, and you can see one there shining extremely brightly, and then next to it is one which is now under construction. The scale dwarfs many projects elsewhere. In the United States, businesses are still investing billions in large-scale renewable energy projects, but at least 38 new solar, wind and battery power plants were cancelled in the first part of 2026, in the face of opposition to renewables from the Trump administration, according to the non-partisan organization E2. In contrast, China's state-backed renewable push continues to expand at speed. That first solar plant we visited just came online in 2018, and now there are 18 across the country, and more than a dozen more under construction. This region also tells a story of transition. This is Yuman. This is basically the cradle of China's oil industry. In 2003, however, when oil production basically dried up, everyone moved out and it became a ghost town. We are starting to see signs of life return as renewable companies move in. You can see the refinery there in the background, and here columns of old tankers. Rusty now. A reminder of the booming industry that was once here. While China is not immune to global price shocks, its massive domestic renewable base combined with coal reserves is helping stabilize supply and limit economic fallout. But coal still dominates much of China's energy mix, contributing to the country being the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, according to the research group Climate Trace. Still, in a moment of global uncertainty, this landscape tells a larger story. A strategic bet on renewables, once driven by pollution concerns and long-term planning, is now proving to be a geopolitical advantage.