In recent years, China's clean energy sector has continued to expand, and the development of a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient energy system has been accelerated. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the proportion of coal consumption in China has decreased by 8.1 percentage points, while the proportion of clean energy consumption has increased by 6.3 percentage points. The first meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission held recently pointed out that it is necessary to adjust the energy structure, reduce coal consumption, and increase the use of clean energy.
In China’s primary energy consumption, fossil energy—coal in particular—has long occupied a dominant position. For a long time, coal utilization in the country has been largely an extensive process. It is understood that the complete combustion of 1 ton of commercial coal (calculated as standard coal) produces approximately 2.64 tons of carbon dioxide, along with about 200–300 kg of ash and slag, 12–15 kg of sulfur dioxide, 50–70 kg of dust, and 16–20 kg of nitrogen oxides.
In 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) jointly issued the Strategy for the Revolution in Energy Production and Consumption (2016–2030). The document clearly states that by 2020, the total energy consumption should be controlled within 5 billion tons of standard coal; the proportion of coal consumption should be further reduced; clean energy should become the main source of incremental energy; significant progress should be made in energy structure adjustment; the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption should reach 15%; and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) should decrease by 18% compared with the 2015 level.
Energy Structure Shifts Toward Diversification
According to recently released data, China’s energy structure is transitioning from a coal-dominated one to a diversified model, and the driving force for energy development is shifting from the growth of traditional energy to that of new energy sources.
In Terms of Scale
In Terms of Quality
On the supply side: The development of clean energy is advancing from resource-concentrated regions to load-concentrated areas, and a pattern featuring both centralized and distributed development is gradually taking shape.
On the consumption side: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the proportion of coal consumption has dropped by a total of 8.5 percentage points, while the proportion of clean energy consumption has risen significantly. In 2017, the shares of non-fossil energy and natural gas in total consumption reached 13.8% and 7% respectively, increasing by a cumulative 4.1 and 2.2 percentage points. Additionally, the volume of electricity substitution exceeded 100 billion kilowatt-hours, and natural gas substitution reached 30 billion cubic meters.
In Terms of Efficiency
The curtailment of hydropower, wind power, and photovoltaic (PV) power involves multiple factors and has long been a "persistent challenge" hindering the development of clean energy. Beyond this, other difficulties in clean energy absorption include: the lack of an established renewable energy power quota system; some provinces prioritizing power generation from local coal-fired units, leading to low enthusiasm for absorbing external new energy power; and an incomplete market mechanism, which prevents new energy power generation from leveraging its advantage of low marginal costs.
Fortunately, the difficulties in clean energy absorption are being significantly alleviated, and the curtailment rates of hydropower, wind power, and PV power are on the decline. The National Energy Work Conference identified "making every effort to resolve clean energy absorption issues" as one of the key tasks for 2018, proposing to promote a yearly reduction in both the volume of curtailed hydropower, wind power, and PV power and curtailment rates, with the goal of basically resolving this problem nationwide by 2020.
"We should adhere to the combination of government guidance and market leadership, national coordination and local utilization, standardized power supply and optimized transmission channels, and technological innovation and institutional reform," the National Energy Work Conference stated. It further proposed that by the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, China should cancel or postpone approximately 150 million kilowatts of coal-fired power construction projects, phase out 20 million kilowatts of outdated coal-fired power capacity, and reduce the proportion of coal-fired power installed capacity to around 55%.
(Source: Xinhua Energy Network)
