The reform of China's energy structure is a long way
US President Donald trump paid a state visit to China from November 8 to November 10. During his visit,China and the United States signed 34 contracts totaling $253.5 billion. The largest concentration is in energy, over $100 billion.
The signing of the big energy bill has boosted the import of clean energy, especially natural gas, which facilitate the reform of China’s energy structure.
China has witnessed the environment destruction of improper energy structure and recent years she has tried to optimize the energy structure.
Energy production and composition of China
China has slowed the pace of energy production in recent years, especially in 2013, China has begun to reduce the production of primary energy and increased the clean energy, aiming to adjust the source, but energy consumption is still growing. Proper energy demand growth will benefit energy structure adjustment. When it faster,due to the urgency of resources and meet the demand of energy, China has no choice, but use coal.
Energy consumption and composition of China
Even though China's total energy consumption has risen in recent years, the consumption ofraw coal has decreased, and the consumption of clean energy has increased.
Apart from the energy production situation will affect the improvement of China's consumption energy structure, China's imports of clean energy will also affect. China's import volume of natural gas in 2016 has fluctuated greatly from the international impact, which is relatively stable in 2017, but still fluctuates. And this has always been a negative factor for China's natural gas consumption.
China's natural gas imports from 2016 to October 2017
In order to better guide the reform of China's consumer energy structure, China has also issued relevant documents in recent years. In 2014, China issued Strategic Action Plan for Energy Development (2014-2020), focusing on optimizing the energy structure and developing clean and low-carbon energy as the main direction of energy restructuring.
It is also mentioned that we should gradually reduce the proportion of coal consumption,raise the proportion of natural gas consumption, and increase the proportion of renewable energy and nuclear power consumption, such as wind power, solar energy and geothermal energy, to form an energy consumption structure,commensurate with China's national conditions and scientific and reasonable energy consumption.
In January 2017,the National Energy Administration released the 13th five-year plan for energy development, which set a binding control index for coal consumption for the first time.
Energy Consumption Target by 2020
The speed of transition depends largely on the pace of future energy growth. China's energy restructuring mainly refers to the clean replacement of coal. Based on China's energy resources and energy security, the share of oil will remain stable for along time. The real change will be the reduction of coal and cleaner natural gas, as well as the increase in nuclear, wind and solar energy in clean energy.
Coal consumption of China from 2013 to 2016
Coal, as the largest energy source in China's energy consumption structure, is the key toenergy optimization. In recent years, China's energy transformation has accelerated significantly.
Clean energy consumption of China from 2013 to2016
Revolution in energy production and consumption will further stimulate the demand for natural gas, but China’s current gas more largely rely on the international supply. The inadequate domestic exploration causes the difficulty in increasing natural gas consumption.
As we can see from the data of 2016, raw coal has reduced at 62% and it will continue to be a downward trend. While the consumption of natural gas has risen in recent year,but it is 6% in 2016. Only four years from the target, which is difficult to meet.
Energy consumption structure in 2016 of China
In recent years,China has been adjusting its energy planning and increasing its input. However, to achieve a comprehensive energy transformation, it is not going to happen overnight. Energy transformation is a long-term job. In reality, coal consumption is erratic and fluctuating.
In the future,China's energy transformation must completely rid itself of its dependence on coal consumption and enter the future of new energy. This road is not easy, but it is imperative.
