Natural gas: Adding green power to industrial development

The most stringent plan in history has made it clear that it will accelerate the adjustment of the energy structure, control the total consumption of coal, and strengthen the control of total energy consumption. While promoting the efficient and clean use of coal, we will increase the proportion of clean energy.

This means that the golden age of natural gas, known as "green energy", is coming.

According to the data, natural gas emits only 67% of the carbon dioxide of petroleum products and 44% of coal for the same unit of heat. Compared with the pollutants emitted by coal, the ash content is 1:148, the sulfur dioxide is 1:2700, and the nitrogen oxide is 1:29, which meets the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In the face of the serious threat posed by global warming to the ecosystem and human living environment, some western developed countries have been exploring new economic development models, and low-carbon economy has gradually been generally recognized by the international community, and is becoming a new round of international economic growth point and competition focus.

Industry experts pointed out that in the promotion of low-carbon energy, natural gas, as a clean and efficient fossil energy, is a bridge to the transition to new energy and an important pillar of the low-carbon economy. In the post-international financial crisis era, large-scale development and utilization of natural gas resources is not only a realistic choice for countries to cope with climate warming, achieve energy conservation and emission reduction, but also a major strategy to maintain national energy security and improve international competitiveness.

The EU 20-20-20 programme, for example, can only achieve 62% of its emissions reduction target if it relies solely on renewables. Using natural gas at 40% of the cost of renewables would save $80 billion.

Over the years, the resource endowment of "rich coal and less oil" has made China's energy consumption structure dominated by coal. At present, natural gas accounts for less than 4% of China's primary energy consumption structure, which is far lower than the world average level of 24%.

In order to improve the energy structure and human living environment, many countries have experienced the process of high-quality energy conversion from coal, oil and natural gas.

Therefore, vigorously developing the natural gas industry has become a major event in the energy field of our country. According to the plan, by 2020, China's natural gas development planning target forecast output is 180 billion to 220 billion cubic meters, the proportion in the energy structure will rise from the current 4% to 8% to 12%. Vigorously developing natural gas can be an important bridge for the transition from traditional fossil energy to clean energy.

Post-carbon 'stabilizer'

Coal, oil, these traditional fossil energy in promoting economic development and social progress at the same time, but also brought increasingly serious "by-products". Environmental pollution, climate warming and ecological deterioration force people to devote themselves to finding cleaner energy sources.

Some say that the third revolution that has been and is coming is the transition from a low-carbon era to a carbon-free era.

According to Jeremy Rifkin, a leading American economist, the transition to renewable energy, decentralized production, storage (in the form of hydrogen), distribution through the Internet of energy, and zero-emission transportation form the five pillars of the new economic model.

Unlike the first and second Industrial revolutions, he said, the emerging third Industrial Revolution is based on widely available and largely free renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, water, geothermal, bioenergy, wave and tidal energy, distributed around the world. These dispersed resources are collected by millions of different energy harvesting points, integrated and distributed through intelligent networks to maximize the efficient use of energy and maintain economic efficiency and sustainable development.

In recent years, China's renewable energy development and utilization has also made some progress, wind power installed capacity has jumped to the top of the world, but in the short term, new energy and renewable energy is difficult to develop on a large scale and become the protagonist of energy supply.

Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy, pointed out in the book "Energy Reshaping the World" that natural gas generation will occupy a growing proportion of the power industry, this trend has become inevitable. The use of natural gas in the U.S. power industry is still expected to grow substantially, and power plants will need to respond quickly if electricity demand surges and energy efficiency improvements and renewables do not produce the desired amount of power. This is when gas-fired power plants are most likely to take on such urgent tasks. This is true not only for the United States, but also for other countries and regions.

It is worth noting that Jeremy Rifkin also acknowledged the fact that while renewable energy sources are large and clean and allow us to live in a sustainable world, they also have certain problems. The sun does not shine all the time, the wind does not blow all the time, or if there is wind, it is not the kind we need, and renewable energy is mostly supplied in intermittent bursts. Conventional energy sources, though limited and polluting, provide a stable supply.