Shanxi: A city with notorious pollution, vigorous emission check

The bustling city of Taiyuan in China’s northern province of Shanxi is dotted with high-rise buildings. At nights, streaks of colourful lights from the skyscrapers brighten up the city, irradiating the faces of passers-by. One night, I stood by the window of my hotel room on the 29th floor of the 46-storey building, relishing the […]

The bustling city of Taiyuan in China’s northern province of Shanxi is dotted with high-rise buildings. At nights, streaks of colourful lights from the skyscrapers brighten up the city, irradiating the faces of passers-by. One night, I stood by the window of my hotel room on the 29th floor of the 46-storey building, relishing the city’s grandeur. It was stunningly beautiful.

The panoramic scene of the lake below is breathtaking. Encircled by a meander of easy-to-walk pathways through different style gardens, the lake is ideal for fun and relaxation. But in the forenoon, the city’s splendour is enshrouded by the heavy grey clouds above.

Taiyuan is notoriously polluted. Though the air quality has been gradually improved and no longer among the worst polluted cities in China, Taiyuan still has below-average ambient air quality, compared with other major Chinese cities. This is expected.

Shanxi-produced coal and electricity has powered half of China’s light bulbs over the past 70 years. The province is rich in natural resources and boasts of high production of coal, iron, silica and marble. The western satellite city of Gujiao hosts the largest production site of metallurgical coal in China. Taiyuan, the province’s capital city, is one of China’s main energy and industrial bases, housing dozens of manufacturing firms.

On a cold, foggy evening, we visited a steel manufacturing factory. There, a thick plume of grey smoke billowing from the chimneys drifted over the picturesque city. The blistering heat inside contrasted with the blustery weather outside. Before we could finish touring the facility, we all became uncomfortably sweltered, that many whipped off their jackets.

China is one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters but also attaches great importance to clean energy. The effort to diversify its energy sources is driven by its increasing energy demand.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) in its report “Global Energy and CO2 Status Report 2018” said energy-related CO2 emissions rose 1.7% to a historic high of 33.1 Gt CO2. While emissions from all fossil fuels increased, the power sector accounted for nearly two-thirds of emissions growth.

The report released in March 2019 showed that China, India, and the United States accounted for 85% of the net increase in emissions, while emissions declined in Germany, Japan, Mexico, France and the United Kingdom.

The increase in carbon emission was as a result of higher energy consumption, which, IEA said, grew by 2.3% worldwide in 2018, nearly twice the average rate of growth since 2010. China, the United States, and India together accounted for nearly 70% of the rise in energy demand.

“Electricity demand continues to grow, so we need to think carefully about the opportunities to digitise, decentralise and decarbonise that growing demand,” Alan Searl, IEA country director in China, said recently at an Energy Low Carbon Development Forum in Taiyuan.

“In our ever more interconnected world, energy transition is a global and inter-generational process. There is no single solution to slowing the growth in emissions. One word captures the essence of what is needed: innovation. And innovation is better when drawing upon the diversity of hard-won experience from around the world,” Searl added.

Themed, “Energy Revolution and International Cooperation”, the forum discussed energy low-carbon development strategy and opportunities for international cooperation to pursue high-quality development of the energy industry in China and the world.

At present, the most obvious sign of the change in the world’s energy supply and demand is to gradually replace fossil with clean and low-carbon energy, which is mainly characterized by large-scale exploitation of non-fossil energy and clean utilization of fossil energy.

Coal has long been dominating the energy mix in China, amounting to an arduous task to achieve clean and low-carbon transition. In 2018, non-fossil energy took up 14.3% in primary energy consumption, and electricity accounted for 25.5% in final energy consumption, up 5.9 and 6.3 percentage points than a decade ago, respectively. It is projected that by 2050, both indicators will exceed 50%.

“In the relatively long run, coal will still occupy a dominant place in the energy mix; however, its share will gradually decline to give way to renewable energy,” said Kou Wei, chairman of State Grid Corporation of China at the forum.

Since China lacks oil and gas resources, Kou said it is of great significance in reducing its dependence on crude oil from foreign countries through pushing forward the electrification of transportation.

“Wind, solar and nuclear energy are mainly converted into electricity. In recent years, hydrogen as a secondary clean energy source has received increasing attention, though its large-scale exploitation is still subject to numerous technical and economic conditions,” he added.

 

China’s energy revolution

An energy revolution is thriving in different parts of the world, with countries advancing the development of clean and low-carbon energy. China, the world’s largest energy producer and consumer, is also a leader in adopting renewable energy supplies and introducing cleaner energy solutions.

IEA report said China, in 2018, accounted for over 40% of the growth in renewable-based electricity generation, followed by Europe, which accounted for 25%. China also had the world’s largest increase in solar and wind generation that same year, according to the report.

Though the intensity of energy consumption in China is still high when compared with world average consumption, the government assured that the demand for non-fossil energy will greatly increase, and a comprehensive energy era led by low-carbon and clean energy is coming.

Shanxi, known as “giant coal producer” now pioneers China’s energy revolution. It has actively participated in energy consumption and supply revolution, energy technology revolution, institutional revolution and deepening foreign cooperation.

Since May 2019, when the central government approved Shanxi to pilot the country’s launch of comprehensive reform for energy revolution, the authorities there said they had launched and implemented many revolutionary and directive initiatives.

“Nowadays, energy revolution is becoming the main content of the transformation of a resource-based economy, and it is becoming the most powerful driving force behind the high-quality economic development of Shanxi,” said Luo Huining, Shanxi provincial secretary of China’s communist party.

This move is not limited to Shanxi; other provinces are also pursuing clean energy development with vigour.

At the forum, Liu Ning, the governor of Qinghai, listed five among the province’s clean energy programmes, which he said were part of China’s commitment to energy security, environmental protection, energy-saving and emission reduction.

Qinghai’s effort to check carbon emission, Liu said, would result in actively eliminating outdated production facilities, steadily advancing the ‘coal to gas’ and ‘coal to electricity’ progress, and the shutting down of 2.1 million tons of coal production facilities.

Liu said the province would steadily build two 10-megawatt new energy bases in Hainan and Haixi and complete the construction of China’s first large-scale energy storage photothermal power generation demonstration project, the world’s largest photovoltaic power station group and the world’s largest Longyangxia 850-megawatt hydro-optical complementary power station.

“We will set up a clean energy development research institute and a research centre for the photovoltaic industry; will build China’s first 100 MW solar photovoltaic power generation demonstration base and China’s first New Energy Big Data Platform, and will establish the first Green Electricity Index Evaluation System in the world.

“Qinghai would speed up the reform of the energy system, which includes exploring market-oriented means to mobilize all parties involved in power generation, distribution and utilization.”

Liu also said the government would widen openness and cooperation in the energy field, accelerate the “Green Power Transmission Project” and successfully develop the power markets in East, Central and Southwest China.

He concluded, saying Qinghai would firmly follow the requirements of “Four Revolutions and One Cooperation” – focusing on the large-scale development of new energy resources, take the use of fully clean energy as the goal, take technology innovation as the support, and take the construction of intelligent grid as the guarantee – to build a demonstration province of clean energy construction, use and output.

 

Digitizing power grids

The need to increase the share of renewable energy in global energy consumption is gaining much attention, but the industry faces complex challenges in the form of operational procedures, planning processes, regulatory and policy reform, cybersecurity, among others.

Generating, managing and distributing energy is more than a matter of gathering, processing and using carefully selected data to optimize processes and resources.

It is estimated that by 2050, almost 26 per cent of energy will come from renewable resources, and notably, 7 per cent will come from wind and solar.

All these issues raise the need for digitalisation which can push the industry further and boost the generation and distribution of green energy.

Kou alluded to this when he said, “the new round of energy revolution puts forward new requirements on the technology, function and form of the power grid, which will no longer work purely as a power transmission carrier in the future. It will become an energy-transforming hub, a platform for optimal resource allocation, and a friendly, open and shared energy internet.”

He underscored the importance of integrating digital technologies with clean energy saying, “Internet of Things in Electricity requires the full application of various advanced digital technologies to achieve an all-round interconnected power system and human-machine interaction, and promote the overall upgrade of power grid functions, services and management.

“On the one hand, it pools various resources to regulate the power system, facilitates coordinated interaction of generation-grid-load-storage systems, and answers to system operation under the circumstance of large-scale integration of new energy.

“On the other hand, it promotes accurate matching and comprehensive optimization of energy supply and demand, meets the needs of customized and diversified services, and improves the efficiency of comprehensive energy utilization.”