A few days ago, the National Energy Administration announced the summary of the reply to Proposal No. 02582 of the Fifth Session of the Thirteenth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Among them, the National Energy Administration's reply to the ''Proposal on Increasing Support for Shanxi's New Energy Development'' mentioned: In order to coordinate the development and construction of photovoltaics and wind power and the protection of forest resources, support the sustainable and healthy development of photovoltaics and wind power, and standardize photovoltaics and wind power Construction uses forest land. And will actively work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and other relevant departments to continuously improve the photovoltaic power generation land policy, increase support, and ensure reasonable land demand.

The original text is as follows: summary of reply to proposal 02582 of the fifth session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference, your proposal on increasing support for the development of new energy in Shanxi has been received. After studying and consultation with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the State Forestry and Grass Administration, the reply is as follows: Since 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made important speeches on carbon peaks and carbon neutrality on many domestic and international occasions, and made important instructions, emphasizing that achieving carbon peaks and carbon neutrality is not what others ask us to do, but what we must do ourselves, defining new tasks for the development of new energy in our country, pointing out new directions and putting forward new requirements. In recent years, the development achievements of China's new energy industry have attracted worldwide attention, and the new and cumulative installed capacity has ranked first in the world for many years. According to statistics, as of the end of June this year, my country's total installed capacity of wind power, photovoltaic power generation, and biomass power generation reached 0.342 billion kilowatts, 0.336 billion kilowatts, and 39.5 million kilowatts respectively; power generation continues to increase, and the total power generation will reach 1.15 trillion kilowatt-hours in 2021, which is basically equivalent to The domestic electricity consumption of residents in the country accounts for 13.8 of the electricity consumption of the whole society; new energy power generation technology continues to advance and the cost rapidly, strong support for China's new energy basically entered a new stage of non-subsidized development. Under the background of carbon peak and carbon neutral target, the development of new energy is facing new situation, new tasks and new requirements, but there are still many constraints to achieve large-scale, high-proportion and high-quality development, especially the land use constraints are becoming more and more prominent. In May of this year, the General Office of the State Council forwarded the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration's "Implementation Plan on Promoting the High-quality Development of New Energy in the New Era", and clearly put forward relevant support policies to ensure the reasonable space demand for new energy development. 1. Policy on Revising Land Use for Photovoltaic Projects In September 2017, the former Ministry of Land and Resources, the former Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the Opinions on Supporting Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation and Regulating Land Use for Photovoltaic Power Generation Industry (Land and Resources Regulations [2017] No. 8, hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"), clarified the land management policy for photovoltaic compound projects, and the promulgation of the "Opinions" strongly supported the development of photovoltaic compound projects. Under the premise of not affecting crop production and not destroying agricultural production conditions, in principle, we support the development of agricultural photovoltaic projects such as agricultural light complementarity. First, when using cultivated land other than permanent basic farmland, we should implement the relevant requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on strict cultivated land protection, and strictly stipulate that under the premise of avoiding photovoltaic projects competing for light sources with grain and other crops, it is strictly forbidden to "non-grain" and "non-agriculturalization" of cultivated land ". Second, when using agricultural land other than arable land, if crop production requires high light source (such as economic forest and fruit, etc.), strict requirements should be made to avoid photovoltaic projects competing with crops for light source; if crops themselves do not require high light source (such as fungi, characteristic crops, etc.), or do not need light conditions (such as aquatic products, livestock and poultry breeding, etc.), agricultural photovoltaic projects should be developed on existing structures such as agricultural facilities, it should be supported. In addition, photovoltaic power generation projects are encouraged to use unused land. When a photovoltaic power generation project uses unused land such as desert, Gobi and desert, the land that does not occupy the land and does not change the surface form may be identified as in-situ and the land use shall not be changed; for the permanent construction land of the project, the formalities shall be handled according to the construction land in accordance with the law. The Ministry of Natural Resources will actively guide the provincial-level natural resources authorities to improve the quality and efficiency of land use approval by simplifying the review process and reducing the approval time in accordance with the requirements of accelerating the progress and not lowering the standards, and make every effort to provide land use element guarantee for high-quality development. In the next step, we will actively work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and other relevant departments to continuously improve the photovoltaic power generation land policy, increase support, and ensure reasonable land demand. The 2. on appropriately relaxing the restrictions on the construction of photovoltaic and wind power projects in forest land is to take into account the development and construction of photovoltaic and wind power and the protection of forest resources, to support the sustainable and healthy development of photovoltaic and wind power, and to standardize the use of forest land in photovoltaic and wind power construction, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration has successively issued the Notice of the State Forestry Administration on Issues Related to the Use of Forest Land in the Construction of Photovoltaic Power Plants (Lin Zifa [2015] No. 153) and the Notice of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration on Regulating the Use of Forest Land in the Construction of Wind Farm Projects (Lin Zifa [2019] No. 17), adhering to the principles of ecological priority, protection priority and economical and intensive use of forest land, and rational planning, clear the photovoltaic, wind power construction of the forbidden area. For photovoltaic and wind power construction projects that meet the conditions for the use of forest land, the examination and approval procedures for the use of forest land shall be handled in strict accordance with the requirements of the above two notices. Thank you for your concern and understanding of the national energy work, and hope to get more support and guidance from you in the future. National Energy Administration August 9, 2022