Clean energy efforts gather momentum

Nation driving adoption of green technologies in BRI economies

Chinese energy companies are expanding their presence in countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, and promoting green, clean power generation in countries beyond China.

According to the China Global Energy Finance, published annually by the Global Development Policy Center's Global China Initiative at Boston University, China's investments globally in power generation over the past five years have been more green than black, as more than 50 percent of the country's investments in power generation projects around the world have been directed toward those sourced from clean energy including water, wind and sun.

China's investments in clean and green energy projects around the world have increased as a proportion of total power generation investments from 20 percent to 55 percent, it said.

According to the CGEF database, overseas energy financing, including investments in power generation, oil and coal extraction, and use of fuels in industry, agriculture and transport, by China's two global policy banks, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, reached $8.6 billion worldwide last year.

As much as 93 percent of China's energy loans reaching $8 billion went to countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative in 2018, according to the database.

While investment in coal was $3 billion for last year, that in sectors of clean energy, including gas, liquefied natural gas, hydropower and wind accounted for the majority of $5 billion.

The total investment on energy projects in countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative so far has reached $186.3 billion, with those in the clean energy sector being $135.8 billion, far exceeding the $51 billion in coal, it said.

According to the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington that conducts in-depth research, China is making a long-term pivot that will transform its expansive energy infrastructure.

China Three Gorges Corp, a leading hydropower generator, has been playing an important role in implementing China's long-term strategic shift to advanced technologies and clean energy by introducing the nation's advanced and accelerating proficiency in renewable technologies beyond the nation.

Global.epec.com, an international online marketplace for industrial and energy products owned by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, the world's largest refiner, which is also known as Sinopec, has reached an accumulated transaction amount of $13.5 billion in the past two years since its launch in 2017, and has served as a bridge that connects trade in industrial products produced in countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Some 125 suppliers and 141 purchasers from 34 countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative have registered on the platform as of March, since its first launch.

The accumulated industrial products import and export trade among enterprises with business involved along the route reached $3.74 billion, accounting for 27.7 percent of the platform's total volume, it said.

State Grid Corp of China, which runs the majority of China's electricity distribution networks, also reported that its second phase of the Belo Monte ultrahigh voltage power project in Brazil, spanning more than 2,500 kilometers, is likely to start commercial operations by the third quarter of this year.

The project, which is currently undergoing system debugging, is the longest 800kV ultrahigh voltage electricity transmission project worldwide and spans 78 cities in Brazil. It is expected to bring China's ultrahigh voltage direct current transmission technology to South America and play a significant role in optimizing the energy structure in Brazil, enabling long-distance, high-efficiency clean energy transmission in the country.

With total investment for the second phase of the project reaching 18.6 billion yuan ($2.77 billion), the project will also provide more than 16,000 jobs in Brazil and higher tax revenues, said the company, which has become the largest power distribution company in Brazil.

This is the company's first ultrahigh voltage electricity transmission project abroad with independent investment, construction and maintenance.