how do Chongqing’s industrial parks implement the ‘Carbon Ode’ initiative?

By Huang Weizheng

(ECNS) — On the rooftops, arrays of solar photovoltaic panels glint in the sunlight; By the roadsides, charging piles power passing new energy vehicles… In the Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing, the construction of low-carbon parks is transforming from a “beautiful blueprint” into a “tangible reality,” driven by the accelerated push for green industrial transformation.

Exploring a path to “generate power with sunlight”

Stone piles stand densely on the rooftops of factory buildings, and steel bars are erected on the stone piles, supporting pieces of “metallic blue” photovoltaic panels. In a few days, a distributed photovoltaic power station will begin operating across approximately 47,000 square meters of rooftop space in Chongqing’s Huazhao Industrial Park, steadily converting sunlight into green electricity. Once operational, the annual green power generated here will exceed 4.5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh).

Currently, it is not uncommon to have photovoltaic power generated on rooftops, but the large-scale construction of photovoltaic power stations in industrial parks is still in the initial exploration stage in various places. The Huazhao Industrial Park is characterized by the predominance of new energy development, intelligent equipment development, and supporting production and manufacturing of auto parts. It consists of a large number of upstream and downstream enterprises in the intelligent connected new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, and many of its products are exported overseas along with the NEVs. International customers are setting increasingly strict green standards for the electricity used in enterprise production. Therefore, the higher the green energy content of the park, the more it can inject new impetus into the high-quality development of enterprises.

“Chongqing is among China’s hottest cities, often called a ‘furnace city.’ Its summer high temperatures lead to higher electricity demand. The park is responsible for ensuring a reliable power supply for the production activities of enterprises during peak summer periods,” said Zhou Fei, a service specialist at Huazhao Industrial Park. The advantages of distributed photovoltaics include using the electricity on-site and feeding surplus power back to the grid. The project is expected to generate an average of 13,000 kWh per day, allowing enterprises in the park to maintain solar-powered production during peak demand. It also makes the idea of “getting electricity from nearby” a reality.

Li Qingqing, chairman of Chongqing Jiewei Technology Co., an enterprise located in the park, welcomed the news that the photovoltaic power station would soon be operational. He said that the international markets are increasingly focused on the carbon footprint of products and the source of energy. The rooftop solar photovoltaic power generation system brings “green electricity” to enterprises, effectively easing the pressure on exports and foreign earnings. “More importantly, leading the green transformation of enterprises with ‘green electricity’ and meeting green demands with green products can push the mutual promotion between green production and green consumption, thus creating a stronger, more dynamic momentum for green development.”

The distributed photovoltaic power station in Huazhao Industrial Park has a total installed capacity of 5.995 MW. It is projected to reduce 1,286 tonnes of standard coal annually while cutting emissions by 96 tonnes of dust, 3,445.2 tonnes of CO₂, 9.4 tonnes of SO₂, and 9.5 tonnes of NOₓ each year. This will help enterprises reduce costs and improve efficiency while contributing to grid stability and supporting China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.

Building a convenient supercharging network

The NEV (New Energy Vehicle) industry, a key pathway toward achieving China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, is growing rapidly, with steadily rising sales and market penetration. With the NEV fleet expanding and improvements in battery capacity and vehicle range, demand for ultra-fast and high-power charging infrastructure is increasing.

Last year, the General Office of the Chongqing municipal government issued the Chongqing Convenient NEV Supercharging Action Plan (2024-2025), clearly proposing to build a high-quality charging infrastructure system centered on supercharging stations, while promoting the integration of new energy vehicles (NEVs) with the power grid. It aims to support the development of a world-class industrial cluster for intelligent connected NEVs and promote the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. According to the plan, by the end of 2025, Chongqing is expected to have more than 2,000 supercharging stations and more than 4,000 superchargers for NEVs.

At a supercharging station in the Huazhao Industrial Park, 16 charging parking spaces are neatly arranged, behind which you can see intelligent cameras “monitoring” each charging pile to identify possible abnormal situations such as the charging guns not returned properly after use, or non-charging vehicles occupying the spaces, so as to ensure the charging efficiency and safety of the supercharging station.

A supercharging station in the Huazhao Industrial Park. (Photo by Huang Weizheng)

The charging station covers an area of about 330 m2 and is equipped with a 1,250 kVA transformer, a 215 kWh energy storage device, and twelve dual-gun flash-charging terminals. In addition, there are four liquid-cooled supercharging terminals, each with a maximum power of up to 600 kW, which can achieve an endurance mileage of 400 km after 3-minute charging.

According to a representative from Chongqing Liangjiang Area Development and Investment Group Co., the initiative is not unique to Huazhao Industrial Park. On a larger scale, multiple supercharging demonstration stations have been built in key industrial parks including Fortune Caifu Park of the Chongqing Gaoke Group Co., the Internet Industrial Park, and the Jupiter Technology Building. A “3-km supercharging circle” has begun to take shape in the Liangjiang Digital Economy Industrial Park, accelerating the emergence of Liangjiang New Area as a “zero-anxiety energy city”, where people can take a 5-minute break to recharge and hit the road fully powered in 15 minutes.

Improving low-carbon industrial chain based on digital energy technologies

Beyond simply reducing emissions, building low-carbon industrial parks also requires actively cultivating industrial synergies. The Liangjiang New Area follows the path of developing “low-carbon industrial clusters and low-carbon industries”. It encourages the development of green and low-carbon industries, as well as introduces and supports enterprises and projects in fields such as new energy, energy conservation, and environmental protection, new materials, and clean transportation. These efforts aim to upgrade the industrial structure, foster green industrial clusters, and drive innovation and sustainable economic growth.

Xiao Yuhan, the person in charge of the Automobile and Electronic Information Investment Department at Liangjiang Fund, introduced that Liangjiang Capital has invested not only in intelligent connected NEV companies such as SERES, Deepal, and Avatr Technology, but also in key energy enterprises such as Ganfeng Lithium and Talent New Energy. It is playing a leading and demonstrative role, promoting collaborative innovation, while actively fostering industrial development in areas such as “source-grid-load-storage-digital”, with a view to helping Liangjiang New Area develop a digital energy-based low-carbon industrial cluster with a sound industrial system and a complete industrial chain.

Green finance is an important guarantee for the development of green productivity. Liangjiang Fund is currently advancing the formation of a RMB 1 billion intelligent energy fund, with planned investments in critical technologies for energy transition, NEVs and their key supply chains, and the going global of the new energy supply chain. This is to enrich climate investment and financing instruments and products, and comprehensively support for innovation in the green, low-carbon digital energy industry.

In addition, a batch of new energy and high-end equipment projects have been launched in the Liangjiang New Area in succession. When visiting the Qingyuan Ju’neng Technology, an enterprise based in Yuxing Square of Liangjiang New Area Digital Economy Industrial Park, reporters learned that the national operation headquarters project of Qingneng Connected’s virtual power plant will use advanced technologies such as the energy Internet, AI, cloud computing, and big data to integrate dispersed resources such as user-side energy storage, distributed photovoltaics, and charging piles, providing virtual power plant platform services, deeply participating in the operation of power grid and transactions in the electricity market, and contribute to the development of a digital energy ecosystem in Chongqing and the Liangjiang New Area.

Moving towards green development, chasing after green innovation, new quality productive forces are taking shape, injecting strong momentum into high-quality development. Nowadays, in Chongqing’s Liangjiang New Area, efforts to build low-carbon parks and zero-carbon parks are being advanced through a series of mutually reinforcing initiatives, such as photovoltaic development, virtual power plant construction, and supercharging station establishment. The green and high-end development of industries, together with efficient multi-energy complementary system is jointly promoting a multi-dimensional win-win outcome of “increasing income” and “increasing greenness” for industrial parks and market entities.