Following the Start of Spring solar term and ahead of the traditional Spring Festival holiday, production lines at Gansu Zhongrui Aluminum Co., Ltd. are operating at full capacity with workers engaged in orderly and intensive production. Molten aluminum is transformed into ingots on the production lines, cooled, then stacked by robots before being shipped out. Recently, this non-ferrous metal casting enterprise located in the Liuchuan Industrial Park in Jingyuan County, Baiyin City, Gansu Province, has been bustling with activity.
Liu Hongwang, director of the company's power workshop, stated, "The company produces over 290,000 tons of aluminum ingots annually, with an annual electricity consumption of approximately 4 billion kilowatt-hours. However, our products can be termed 'green electrolytic aluminum.'" Electrolytic aluminum production is a highly energy-intensive industry, so where does the "green" aspect come from? Liu Hongwang explained, "To accelerate the green and low-carbon energy transition, the company has signed medium- and long-term contracts with clean energy enterprises within the province on one hand. On the other hand, we actively purchase green electricity and Green Electricity Certificates (GECs) to offset our renewable energy consumption quotas."
Industry insiders note that aluminum ingots produced using pure green electricity can be certified as green power aluminum products. Such products are not only favored by enterprises in sectors like new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, lithium batteries, aviation, and packaging but also gain easier access to international markets.
A Green Electricity Certificate (GEC) serves as the sole proof of the environmental attributes of renewable energy generation in China and is the exclusive credential for certifying the production and consumption of renewable energy power. GECs act as certificates of consumption for renewable energy electricity, used for accounting and certifying renewable energy power consumption. One GEC unit corresponds to 1,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy electricity.
"By consuming green power or purchasing GECs, enterprises can have their energy consumption indicators deducted, offset carbon emissions, and achieve emission reduction targets," Liu Hongwang said.
To effectively serve enterprises purchasing GECs, State Grid Baiyin Power Supply Company took the lead in establishing city and county-level green power and GEC service windows early in 2025, providing one-stop services including policy consultation and account registration for enterprises. In 2025, Gansu Zhongrui Aluminum Co., Ltd. spent over 1 million yuan to purchase 1.35 million GECs. "Combined with the purchased hydropower, wind, and solar power quotas, this has enabled us to meet the required proportion of green energy usage for the electrolytic aluminum industry in Gansu," Liu Hongwang stated, adding that the company will continue to increase its purchases of green power and GECs to further accelerate its transition towards sustainable development.
Beyond assisting enterprises with GEC purchases, in 2023, State Grid Baiyin Power Supply Company also helped this company change its basic electricity fee calculation method from demand-based charging to transformer capacity-based charging, reducing the company's monthly electricity costs by over 1.4 million yuan.
"By promoting green power and GEC policies and optimizing electricity pricing strategies through on-site visits, we have taken practical measures to help enterprises save energy and reduce consumption," said Si Yue, a customer manager in the Marketing Department of State Grid Baiyin Power Supply Company. In 2025, the company provided green power and GEC transaction services to 14 local enterprises, facilitating transactions for 12.98 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity and over 1.3 million GECs.
Today, Baiyin is just one example of Gansu's continuously improving capacity for local consumption of green power. Dunhuang City achieved 100% green power supply across its entire region for the full year of 2025. Industrial parks in Qingyang City, Jinchang City, and other areas have taken the lead in signing long-term green power procurement agreements. Initiatives like "zero-carbon parks," "zero-carbon government offices," and "zero-carbon campuses" are creating demonstration effects, gradually embedding the concept of green energy consumption into public consciousness.
According to data from the Gansu Electricity Trading Center, as of December 19, 2025, the annual GEC transaction volume in Gansu exceeded 23 million certificates, a year-on-year increase of 38.86%. The transaction volume for green electricity surpassed 13.3 billion kilowatt-hours, equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 10.69 million tons or planting approximately 59,800 trees.
Zhu Qiantao, a professor at the School of Economics, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics, believes that the surge in GEC transactions indicates the increasingly prominent effectiveness of Gansu's efforts to build a nationally significant new energy base. "As Gansu's capacity for local consumption of green power continues to improve, green electricity will be favored by more users in promoting industrial quality improvement and upgrading."
Comments