Look at the transition to clean energy and low carbon through "lifting"

【Economy Interface】

　　In recent years, domestic coal and electricity supply and demand have continued to be tight, and various factors have led to the adoption of orderly electricity use measures in some places, which has aroused social concern.

China is the world's largest energy producer and energy consumer. Energy security is essential to the prosperity and development of the country, the improvement of people's lives, and the long-term stability of society.

　　According to the latest data, preliminary calculations show that in the first three quarters of this year, the proportion of natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, solar power and other clean energy consumption in China's total energy consumption increased by 0.6% over the same period of the previous year, and the share of coal consumption decreased by 0.2%. percentage point.

　　After years of unremitting efforts, China's energy production and consumption structure has been continuously optimized, the proportion of clean energy and non-fossil energy consumption has accelerated, and the proportion of coal in total energy consumption has shown an overall downward trend.

Experts believe that one "up" and one "down" sent a positive signal.

Through the trend of "up and down", it can be seen that China's energy development is moving towards a clean and low-carbon direction, entering a new stage of high-quality development.

1. A relatively high proportion of coal is still the basic energy source

【status quo】

The white paper "China's Energy Development in the New Era" released at the end of 2020 stated that coal is still the basic energy source to ensure energy supply. Since 2012, the annual output of raw coal has remained at 3.41 billion to 3.97 billion tons.

The scale of renewable energy development and utilization is rapidly expanding, and the cumulative installed capacity of hydropower, wind power, and photovoltaic power generation ranks first in the world.

　　In the early days of the founding of New China, coal accounted for more than 90% of the country's total energy consumption.

After years of development, China's energy production and consumption structure has been continuously optimized, and an energy production system driven by coal, oil, gas, electricity, nuclear, new energy and renewable energy has basically been formed.

　　Zhang Yousheng, deputy director of the Energy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomics, said in an interview with this reporter that compared with the world's energy structure, the proportion of coal in China's energy structure is relatively high, which is determined by China's energy resource endowment.

In the past ten years, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's energy structure adjustment has achieved remarkable results.

China has implemented air pollution prevention and control actions and clean heating in winter in the north, and vigorously promoted "electricity to replace coal" and "gas to replace coal", and the proportion of coal consumption has dropped significantly.

In 2020, the proportion of coal in primary energy consumption will drop to 56.8%.

　　“China’s power supply structure adjustment has accelerated, and the proportion of thermal power continues to decline, while the proportion of non-fossil energy power generation is rapidly increasing.” Zhang Yousheng said, in comparison, China is the country with the fastest energy structure adjustment in the world and has been built in the world. The largest non-fossil energy development and utilization system.

　　However, Zhang Yousheng also said that the current proportion of thermal power in China is still high, which means that the amount of coal used for power generation will remain high.

Faced with coal-based energy endowments, China must continue to optimize its energy structure and promote the realization of a clean, low-carbon transition and high-quality development of energy.

　　Wang Jixue, deputy dean of the Clean Energy Research Institute of the Central Electric Power Planning and Design Institute, believes that for a long period of time in the future, coal will still be the main energy source of our country, and it will play an important foundation and guarantee role in the national energy supply.

Similarly, in the short term, the status of thermal power as a basic supporting power source will not change.

2. It is not “avoidable” to develop thermal power cleanly and efficiently

【Case】

Nowadays, more and more coal mines use 5G and become more "smart": workers no longer "go down" as before, but sit in their offices and remotely control related machinery and equipment for underground coal mining operations, mining, The transportation and other pictures are displayed on the big screen in the office area in real time and clearly, which is clear at a glance.

　　The high-quality development of energy does not mean "keep away" and "shun" coal, but to develop advanced production capacity in an orderly manner, speed up the elimination of outdated production capacity, control total coal consumption, and promote clean and efficient use of coal.

　　According to the "Guiding Opinions on Energy Work in 2021" issued by the National Energy Administration, the proportion of coal consumption in China will drop below 56% in 2021.

China will accelerate the construction of coal mine mechanization, automation, informationization, and intelligence, promote the green mining and transformation of large coal bases, and comprehensively improve the level of comprehensive utilization of resources.

　　At the same time, China will develop thermal power cleanly and efficiently, implement energy-saving emission reduction upgrades and transformation actions, and implement stricter energy efficiency and environmental protection standards.

　　"We must pay great attention to the green development of the thermal power industry." Wang Jixue said that in the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the role of thermal power "ballast" should be more reflected in ensuring power safety and reducing carbon emissions from the power system. On this basis, it is necessary to coordinate the implementation of thermal power transformation and upgrade thermal power to flexible and secure power sources.

　　In Zhang Yousheng's view, the optimization of China's economic structure and the continuous upgrading of industries will promote the upgrading of energy demand structure and boost the level of electrification of end-use energy.

The position of the power system in the future energy system will become more and more important, and power security will become the main content of China's energy security in the future.

　　"The adjustment of the power structure is not an overnight task." Zhang Yousheng said that there has been a major adjustment in the development of thermal power, that is, from the past based on base load to base load and peak shaving.

Before the large-scale commercial utilization of new energy storage peak-shaving methods such as electrochemical energy storage and virtual power plants, maintaining moderate thermal power can not only play the role of thermal power in the safe supply of electricity, but also protect the large-scale development of new energy.

　　Zhang Yousheng said that achieving high-level green development of thermal power is an inevitable requirement for the development of the new era.

It is necessary to continue to tap the potential for energy conservation and emission reduction, further improve efficiency, and reduce the level of various conventional pollutants; increase the technology research and development and engineering demonstration of carbon capture, utilization and storage projects, make technical reserves, and promote the low-carbon development of thermal power.

3. Don’t “waste food due to choking” and vigorously develop renewable energy

【Case】

Recently, a large number of large-scale scenery base projects in China have started one after another.

On October 15th, 12.85 million kilowatt projects including the 1.5 million kilowatt photovoltaic desertification control project in Zhangye Wuwei, Hexi, Gansu, started concentratedly, and the Hainan base project and the Haixi base project of the Qinghai national large-scale wind power photovoltaic base project started; October 16th, Kubuqi, Inner Mongolia The 2 million kilowatt photovoltaic desertification control project started; on October 19, the 2 million kilowatt outgoing project in Inner Mongolia Datang Tuoketuo started......

　　The reporter learned from the National Development and Reform Commission that large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects must have superior resource endowments, mature construction conditions, and achieve effective consumption and utilization.

The first batch of large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects focusing on deserts, Gobi and desert areas has a scale of about 100 million kilowatts.

　　In recent years, renewable energy technologies such as wind power and photovoltaics have been advancing rapidly and their costs have continued to decline. Starting from 2021, the state will no longer provide subsidies for new projects. This means that wind and solar have completed the parity of the grid and have achieved the same stage as thermal power. sports".

　　Wang Jixue told reporters that China is a big country in the renewable energy industry, with a relatively complete wind and photovoltaic industry chain, strong international competitiveness in product technical indicators and economy, and has many world-class industry leaders.

Vigorously develop wind and solar renewable energy is the general trend.

　　"The high-quality development of China's energy resources can neither'waste food due to choking,' nor'cause one and lose the other'." Wang Jixue said, limited by its own characteristics, the power supply capacity guaranteed by renewable energy sources such as wind and light is low, and other power sources or energy storage are needed. Provide balance capability to ensure real-time balance of the power system without risk of instability.

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to focus on research on how to provide system support to better play the role of wind and photovoltaic energy substitution.

　　Zhang Yousheng suggested that in the future, we must continue to increase technological innovation.

Accelerate the development of centralized power stations in areas rich in wind and solar energy resources such as the western and northern regions; accelerate the development of distributed clean energy projects in the central, eastern and southern regions.

In addition, it is necessary to actively and orderly promote the construction of offshore wind power projects in coastal regions such as Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong in order to support local clean and low-carbon development.

　　"Hydropower is one of the more mature non-fossil energy sources in China." Zhang Yousheng said that in the future, we will speed up the construction of the Southwest Hydropower Base, accelerate the development of pumped-storage power station projects, improve the energy storage and flexible adjustment capabilities of the power system, and promote wind, light, etc. The development of variable power sources and the construction of new power systems.

(Reporter Liu Kun)