(Yicai Global) March 9 -- Anhui Conch Cement plans to spend CNY5 billion (USD791.4 million) this year to build renewable energy power plants at its factories in order to meet the country’s carbon peaking and neutrality goals, China’s largest cement maker said yesterday.

The target is to have one gigawatt of installed photovoltaic capacity by the end of this year, with a yearly generation capacity of 100 million kilowatt-hours, the Wuhu, eastern Anhui province-based company said. Last November the cement maker said its PV generation capacity was only 180 megawatts.

The money will go into solar power stations and energy storage projects at its various plants, with the aim of going fully green, the firm said, without going into further detail.

Big industrial leaders like Conch Cement need to start cutting their greenhouse gas emissions to align with the country’s target of achieving peak emissions by 2030 and zero emissions by 2060.

Also, emission rights for the cement, steel and electrolytic aluminum industries are expected to be included into the national carbon market soon. One third of respondents in a survey conducted by US global consulting company ICF International and Chinese think tank SinoCarbon Innovation & Investment last month said this could happen as soon as this year or the next.

The national carbon market, which opened in July last year, is the world's biggest carbon emission permit trading market. It incorporates 2,162 key emission entities in the power generation industry and covers about 4.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Conch Cement’s share price [SHA:600585] was trading down 2.03 percent at CNY38.21 (USD6) as of 11:30 a.m. China time.

Editor: Kim Taylor