China's green energy overcapacity: AI as the fix at Fortune Leaders Forum

The panel in Macau took place against a backdrop of energy anxiety elsewhere in Asia. Ever since the U.S.-Iran war choked the Strait of Hormuz, Asian importers have scrambled for new sources of oil and LNG. China, by contrast, has a different problem: it has built more clean energy infrastructure than the market needs.

The scale is notable. China will account for 60% of all installed renewable capacity through 2030, according to the International Energy Agency, and in July solar overtook coal as China's largest source of installed power capacity. Jinko Solar's Daniel Liu said renewables effectively covered all of China's electricity demand growth last year. The panelists' pitch is that AI can absorb and manage some of that excess — both by consuming large and steady power for computing, and by forecasting variable wind and solar output.

How far this solves overcapacity is likely to depend on whether AI-driven forecasting and automated maintenance can actually make surplus renewable power more usable at scale. For Chinese clean energy operators and the data center builders relocating to Southeast Asia, the question is whether the tools shown in Macau move from pilot projects to standard practice.