City taking lead on clean energy nationwide
With a focus on reducing carbon emissions on its environmental drive during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), the Beijing government is pursuing a “more efficient, greener and more resilient” energy development model, a local official said.
Lai Xianyu, deputy head of the Beijing Commission of Development and Reform, made the remarks at a recent news conference.
“Creating a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system is a move to address pollution at the root of the issue,” Lai said, adding it is of great significance to Beijing’s healthy development.
Combining with its city renewal initiative, the government plans to complete the renovation of old residential communities by 2025, improving the energy efficiency of the old buildings, he said.
To encourage the efficient use of energy, authorities will roll out or revise a slew of energy conservation standards for key industries and equipment, in line with international rules.
Promoting the application of energy management contracts and eco-friendly technologies, exploring the trade in energy use rights, and advancing the construction of a market-oriented green technology innovation system are also on the city government’s agenda for the 14th Five-Year Plan.
Lai said that since an implementation plan for strengthening energy conservation was jointly issued by 11 departments of the Beijing government in early November, 165 activities targeting businesses, public buildings and residential communities have been held and related online training has benefited more than 11,000 business representatives.
In addition, 26 third-party data service centers in the city have been equipped with an online energy consumption monitoring system, offering real-time information on energy use, and inspections are made at 57 key local energy consumers, including petrochemical and cement businesses, data service centers, shopping malls and supermarkets, he added.
The energy sector made a key contribution to the city’s improved environment during the 13th FiveYear Plan period (2016-20), Lai said.
Governmental data show the coal consumption citywide was slashed from 11.65 million metric tons in 2015 to 1.35 million tons in 2020. As a result, the proportion of coal in the city’s total energy consumption fell from 13.1 percent in 2015 to 1.5 percent, enabling Beijing to stand at the forefront of China in terms of optimized energy usage.
Lai cited a research report showing that over the past two decades, reductions in coal consumption led to more than 80 percent of the reduction in sulfur dioxide in the air and over half of the reduction of PM 2.5, which refers to particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less.
In 2020, Beijing’s energy consumption per 10,000 yuan ($1,571.1) of GDP dropped to 0.21 tons of standard coal, ranking the city among the best among Chinese provincial regions.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the Beijing government aims for a further depletion in coal consumption to no more than 1 million tons and expects to reduce the consumption of natural gas to some 20 billion cubic meters, Lai said.
The city is beefing up its power supply with new energy as the major source and advancing the replacement of conventional energy with renewable energy.
Its goal is that the green power supply from outside Beijing will be able to reach 30 billion kilowatthours by 2025. Integrating local operations’ exploration and development, renewable energy is projected to contribute 14.4 percent of the city’s total energy consumption by then, Lai said.
“Beijing is creating a smart digitalized energy system and promoting the integration of new energy technologies into a smart city’s development,” he said, adding that covers both power and heat supply.
“As part of the efforts to improve the resilience of the city’s energy system, we’ll build a diverse natural gas supply network to improve safety in operation and capacity in storage in case of emergency.”