Alibaba and Huaneng Energy established Huaneng Baoding Integrated Energy Co., Ltd. in Baoding, a city in northern China. Alibaba (China) Network Technology holds 30% of the new joint venture while Huaneng Hebei Clean Energy, a subsidiary of Huaneng Power, holds 70%.

Huaneng, the state-owned enterprise, is an electric power company founded in 1994 and one of the five largest power producers in China. Following China’s green initiatives, the company has also been conducting research in relation to renewable energy and new energy.

According to the new JV’s license, Huaneng Baoding Integrated Energy’s businesses items include power generation, power transmission, power supply and distribution.

The JV could be Alibaba’s ticket into the clean energy sector. As one of China’s largest tech companies, Alibaba has promised to achieve carbon neutrality within its own operations by 2030. In addition, it also plans to offer a platform for consumers and other enterprises, inspire social engagement, and collectively reduce carbon emissions by 1.5 million tons by 2035.

In order to achieve its carbon reduction goals, Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics arm has been equipping rooftop photovoltaic power generation projects in the smart logistics parks in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Dongguan since 2017.

These projects helps Cainiao replace electricity with clean energy to reduce carbon emissions. In 2020, the annual power generation of the six rooftop photovoltaic logistics parks exceeds 18 million kWh, which is equivalent to saving 12,000 tons of carbon. Alibaba plans to assemble such setup in all applicable Cainiao logistics parks by 2030.

The new JV would also potentially benefit from Alibaba’s digital solutions. The tech giant joined hands with the Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau of the Southern Power Grid as early as 2015, and offered internet solutions for the city grid. Alibaba’s cloud service has been building big data platform solutions for integrated energy scenarios in recent years, and established a strategic cooperation with China’s State Power Investment in July this year.