China, Chile to promote sustainable energy

China and Chile issued a joint declaration of cooperation in promoting sustainable development of energy and boosting cross-border power grid connectivity on Tuesday.

The move was to address the challenge of merging environmental and economic goals, according to the statement co-released by Chile's Ministry of Energy and China-led Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO).

In the declaration, the two sides agreed to share their know-how and technical capacity to conduct research on nationwide and cross-regional power grid networks.

Liu Zhenya, chairman of both GEIDCO and the China Electricity Council, called on the two parties to strengthen the cooperation to make global energy interconnection a reality in Chile. "The grid interconnection would help meet Chile's domestic power demand," Liu said.

Global energy interconnection is a vision to form a massive global electricity grid powered by renewable sources.

It is a globally interconnected smart grid with ultra-high voltage grids as its backbone. It also serves as an infrastructure platform to develop, transmit and consume clean energy on a massive scale worldwide.

In a speech, Chile's former president Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, also the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary for Asia, underscored the necessities of Sino-Chile collaboration in energy.

He said electricity interconnection could not only promote the use of renewable energy, but also strengthen energy security and ensure energy diversity.