Experts highlight role of govt plan in bringing upgrades in traditional, clean energy sectors
China's plan to build a new type of power system that features a gradual increase in the proportion of clean energy will further facilitate the country's carbon neutrality goals while ensuring domestic energy security, said a recent report.
The report, named The Synergetic Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality and Clean Air in China 2022, was jointly released by institutions including Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP) under the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Such a system will accelerate the country's pace of achieving its carbon goals, reducing the proportion of coal consumption while increasing renewable energy in its power mix, said the report.
Building such a new power system will not only accelerate the upgrade of clean coal power generation, flexible transmission and new energy storage technologies, but also the carbon capture, utilization and storage as well as electricity market trading and carbon emission monitoring technologies in the coming decades, it said.
As the government vows to control the coal proportion in interprovincial power delivery, with new grid channels to include at least 50 percent renewable energy, it is estimated the country's total installed capacity will exceed 1.2 billion kilowatts by the end of 2030, said Lei Yu, a researcher with the CAEP.
The proportion of wind and solar power will account for more than half of the country's total installed capacity by then, Lei said.
According to a plan released in October by the State Council, China will vigorously improve the comprehensive regulation capability of the power system and accelerate the construction of flexible power regulation to build a strong smart grid and improve the grid security level.
It will also actively develop the storage system for new energy to support the rational allocation of energy storage systems for distributed new energy sources.
The report estimates that power generated by wind and solar will increase from 9.5 percent in 2021 to 20 to 26 percent in 2030.
Wang Jinnan, head of the CAEP and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the nation's green and low-carbon development has been increasing in recent years.
Research shows the change in energy structure has drastically reduced the emissions of air pollutants in the past few years, Wang said.
Lu Xinming, deputy director-general of the department of climate change affairs at China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said China has made solid progress in the new energy industry in recent years, with the installed capacity of wind and solar power accounting for around 50 percent and 30 percent of the world's total, respectively.
All of these efforts have not only driven the country's industrial and economic development, but also helped reduce fossil fuel consumption and played a key role in improving air quality, Lu said.
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