How China fights to alleviate energy shortages

Non-stop efforts

With notable progress achieved in the battle to alleviate energy shortages, the country is sparing no efforts to promote the long-term growth of the energy sector. Relevant governmental departments held a flurry of meetings, consulted with industry professionals and introduced a series of policy documents.

In late October, an official document was released saying that by 2060, China will have fully established a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system, with energy efficiency reaching the advanced international level.

At the annual Central Economic Work Conference held earlier this month, Chinese leaders reviewed the year's economic work and made arrangements for next year, stressing the need to strengthen the clean and efficient use of coal and phase out traditional energy based on safe, reliable new energy alternatives.

The country will also continue to increase the absorptive capacity of new energy, and optimize the use of coal and new energy. Large firms, especially State-owned enterprises, are working on the front lines of securing the power supply and stabilizing prices.

Acknowledging the role of coal as the country's dominant energy source for the near future, some experts have pitched methods of improving the efficiency of the use of coal by exploiting and utilizing coal in a cleaner way with advanced technology.

China is the largest coal producer and consumer of coal in the world. Thermal power still takes up a large share of China's energy output, accounting for about 70 percent of the country's power generation.

The country's coal chemical industry has already overcome formidable technical problems including coal gasification and liquefaction with a range of key technical equipment taking the lead globally, researchers noted.

"A new type of power system fuelled mainly by new energy must be built," Zhang Xiaoqiang, executive deputy head of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges said, adding that the country must actively develop new energy and beef up energy storage, as well as speed up the construction of a power supply featuring flexible adjustment.

In the January-November period, China's total installed power generation capacity expanded by 9 percent year-on-year to 2.32 billion kilowatts, with wind power capacity soaring 29 percent to 300 million kilowatts and solar power capacity surging 24.1 percent to reach 290 million kilowatts, NEA data showed.

Meteorological services are also expected to play a role in serving the energy safety in China, with forecasting and early warning of weather disasters further strengthening and weather services for the production, distribution and transportation of coal, electricity, oil and gas further built up, said a five-year plan on meteorological services in 2021-2025.