Science and Technology Daily:

The province of Shandong has traditionally been a major energy producer and consumer in China and faces the critical task of reducing coal consumption and controlling energy consumption. How will Shandong achieve green and low-carbon transformation? What measures will be taken to expand the development and use of new energy? Thank you.

Sun Aijun:

Thank you for your questions. As you mentioned, Shandong has traditionally been a major energy producer and consumer in China and has long played an important role in ensuring national energy security. In recent years, based on the actual situation of our own industry and energy structure, we have seized the major opportunity of building a green, low-carbon, and high-quality development pilot zone and accelerated energy transformation in two areas.

On the one hand, we have continued ramping up efforts to conserve energy. Just as Mr. Zhou Naixiang mentioned, in the first three years of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Shandong's energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP dropped by 15.8%, while the economy grew at an average annual rate of 6%. This means we have achieved economic growth at a medium-to-high-speed with less energy consumption, which is not easy. Next, we will focus on key industries such as chemicals, steel, and electrolytic aluminum, exerting greater effort to improve corporate energy efficiency and meet the dual energy consumption control targets in the 14th Five-Year Plan.

On the other hand, the energy structure has been continuously adjusted and optimized. We have sped up the construction of a new energy system. As of the end of March this year, new energy and renewable energy sources account for 45% of the province's total installed power capacity, increasing by 15 percentage points from 2020. The proportion of coal-fired power generation has dropped to less than half of the total installed capacity, significantly reducing its dominance in our energy and electricity consumption.

Building on this basis, we will further accelerate the development of new energy and renewable energy. In this regard, Shandong is endowed with unique natural resources and favorable locational conditions. We have planned and constructed five major clean energy bases, including offshore wind farms, offshore photovoltaic projects, and the Jiaodong Peninsula Nuclear Power Base. Together with onshore wind farms and county-wide distributed photovoltaic projects, the total installed capacity will reach 240 million kilowatts, and the total project investment will exceed 2 trillion yuan, which can drive industrial investment of more than 860 billion yuan.

In terms of nuclear power, the CAP1400 unit will be completed and go into commercial operation this year. In June, the first phase of an expansion of Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant will start. In addition, several projects, such as the first phase of the Zhaoyuan Nuclear Power Plant, are accelerating preliminary work. By the end of 2025, the scale of nuclear power in operation and under construction in the province is expected to reach 19.7 million kilowatts. Shandong will become a leading province in nuclear power generation.

In terms of wind power, there are currently 4.81 million kilowatts of installed capacity offshore in operation, ranking third in the country. This year, we will focus on advancing provincial-administrated offshore projects to open and integrate as much as possible. Onshore, we launched the first group of centralized wind power projects last year, totaling over 8.7 million kilowatts. These projects have started one after another. The development of the second batch of projects will be launched soon.

In terms of photovoltaics, Shandong's installed capacity ranks first nationwide. This year, we will accelerate the development of Lubei Base project and fully connect the 10-million-kilowatt projects included in the country's third batch of large-scale wind and solar bases to the grid. At the same time, on the consumption side, we are accelerating the development of new types of energy storage. This year, the total energy storage capacity will exceed 5 million kilowatts and continue to top the whole country. Through these measures, green power supply capacity will be greatly improved. By the end of 2025, the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption in the province will increase by more than 2.5%, making greater breakthroughs in energy transformation and low-carbon development. Thank you.