Current situation of new energy development and wind power generation in China

Coal, oil, natural gas is the earth's gift to human beings, is our daily production and life indispensable and non-renewable resources, human also through scientific research and development of coal, oil, natural gas use incisively and vividly, playing an important role in many fields. However, fossil fuel is a non-renewable energy and a primary energy, which will eventually be exhausted one day. In the context of dual-carbon, the development of new energy is particularly important. As college students, we have the responsibility to understand the current situation of China's new energy development and contribute our own strength to sustainable development. This paper mainly summarizes the background and current situation of the development of new energy in China, especially the wind power generation.

1 Why to develop new energy (Background of new energy generation)

Coal, oil and natural gas, as the world's three major fossil fuels, are very limited in the human life on the earth, and China's huge population, the main consumption mode is based on fossil energy, the per capita resource is very small, and China's current economic development mode is mainly high consumption, low energy consumption mode, consuming a lot of energy, the global energy supply is tight. When fossil energy is exhausted, mankind will face a great crisis, so we must vigorously develop new energy, renewable energy.

1.1 Global warming

By burning a large amount of fossil fuels, people have emitted a large amount of greenhouse gases in the air, resulting in the strengthening of the greenhouse effect, which leads to the global average temperature rise. The main emission of human production and life is carbon dioxide, which mainly comes from the combustion of three major fossil fuels. The warming effect of the greenhouse effect can keep the Earth's surface at the right temperature, thus providing favorable conditions for life. But the increased greenhouse effect will cause global average temperatures to rise.

In recent decades, the global average temperature has continued to rise, and climate warming has become one of the global problems facing mankind (Figure 1). The global average temperature in 2020 is 1.2±0.1°C above pre-industrial levels. 2016, 2020 and 2019 became the three hottest years on record. Due to the La Nina event, the global warming in 2021 will be 1.08°C, slightly lower.

Global warming has led to many adverse effects, such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, inundation of coastal land, reduction of biodiversity, frequent meteorological disasters, and reduced food production.

1.2 Dual carbon background - carbon neutral, carbon peak

At the Paris Climate Change Conference on December 12, 2015, 196 countries and organizations in the world unanimously adopted the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to keep the global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius compared with the industrial period, and commit to limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In 2020, at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, China explicitly and officially proposed that carbon dioxide emissions should peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

The goal of double carbon is also a recent policy put forward by China in recent years, and China is moving towards this goal at present. Double carbon is a two-stage carbon reduction target proposed by China, referred to as the "double carbon" target. "Peak carbon" means that carbon dioxide emissions will no longer grow when they peak, which means that China will stop growing and gradually decline after the total carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030. "Carbon neutrality" means that by 2060, China will offset its excessive carbon dioxide emissions through the development of new energy, afforestation, energy conservation and emission reduction, and industrial restructuring. On November 4, 2020, the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement. On February 19, 2021, the United States announced that it would formally rejoin the Paris Agreement and aim to become carbon neutral by 2050.

1.3 Carbon Neutrality

There are four main paths to achieve carbon neutrality: 1, carbon cycle 2, carbon sequestration 3, carbon reduction 4, and carbon substitution

The most important way of carbon neutrality is carbon substitution, that is, energy substitution, that is, solar energy, wind energy, hydrogen energy, nuclear energy and other new clean energy. It is urgent for China to realize new energy substitution, China's crude oil imports are as high as 70%, the lifeblood is in the hands of foreign countries, far beyond the red line of energy security, which is very dangerous in the long run. At present, carbon emissions in many areas of China have reached a peak, and there is a transition period of about 50 to 70 years from carbon peak to carbon neutrality. China's carbon dioxide emissions account for about 30% of the world, not only the total emissions more than the United States, the European Union, Japan's total, and from the peak of carbon to carbon neutral only 30 years, now to the peak of carbon is less than 8 years, can be a tight task urgent, the development of new energy needs imminent.

2. Development status of domestic new energy industry

Globally, the new energy industry is on the rise, which is the general trend. The concept of low carbon environmental protection and preventing global warming has become the mainstream idea of the world, and the development of new energy industry is the main means to achieve this goal. China's vigorous development of the new energy industry has become the highest priority of the national strategy, not only because of the pressure of international public opinion, but also the result of China's initiative to change. The country's commitment to achieving carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 is unquestionable. Vigorously developing the new energy industry is not only the actual need to prevent global warming, but also a great opportunity for China to achieve a curve overtaking traditional developed countries.

New energy power generation is the trend of The Times, and its development prospects are self-evident under the historical wave of global energy structure transformation. In recent years, China has also continuously introduced various policies, spare no effort to support the development of new energy power generation industry. According to China's "double carbon goal", by 2060, the proportion of non-petrochemical energy consumption will account for more than 80%. In other words, in the future, wind, light and other new energy generation to account for more than 50% of the total power generation.

2.1 Current situation and trend of China's new energy power generation industry

The new energy power generation industry mainly includes wind power, solar photovoltaic power generation, hydropower, nuclear power and so on. In the context of the increasingly tight supply of traditional energy and the increasing pressure on environmental protection, the Electronic Information Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a news on February 15 that the total export of photovoltaic products in 2021 in China exceeded 28.4 billion US dollars, an increase of 43.8% compared with the total export of about 19.75 billion US dollars in 2020. New energy has become an important energy strategy in China.

In the hydropower industry, by the end of 2021, China's total installed hydropower capacity was about 391GW, accounting for about 16.4% of the country's total installed power generation capacity, and 23.49GW was added. China has four of the top ten hydropower stations in the world, and the world's largest installed hydropower capacity.

In the nuclear power industry, China's nuclear power installation level has long lagged behind developed countries, but now it is catching up. China's third-generation nuclear power plant Hualong One began to go abroad and enter the world market. It is expected that by 2035, the proportion of nuclear power generation in China's total power generation could rise to about 10%. At present, China's installed capacity of wind power generation, photovoltaic power generation, hydropower generation has ranked first in the world, wind and optical products are the world's largest exporter, nuclear power installed capacity may surpass the United States around 2030, becoming the world's largest nuclear power country. According to the national plan, by 2060, the proportion of new energy generation will reach about 80%, to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. This is a big and exciting plan.

2.2 China's power structure in 2022

From the perspective of power generation structure, the national wind power generation from January to April 2022 will be 226.47 billion KWH, accounting for 8.70%; Nuclear power generation was 131.65 billion KWH, accounting for 5.06%; Thermal power generation was 1,863.47 billion KWH, accounting for 71.59%; The hydropower generation was 313 billion KWH, accounting for 12.02%; Solar power generation was 68.32 billion KWH, accounting for 2.62%.

Or to traditional thermal power generation, the combined proportion of the two as high as 71.59%. The proportion of new energy generation (mainly wind power, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, photovoltaic power generation) is very low, wind power, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, solar power combined account for less than 30%. From this point of view, new energy generation still has a long way to go. However, from the perspective of development growth, the development speed of new energy power generation is faster than thermal power generation. Combined with China's "double carbon goal", looking forward to the future, we can roughly see the development prospects of the above five power generation methods.

Although thermal power generation is now the main force, because it is mainly burning coal for power generation, it is one of the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions. In the context of carbon neutrality, it is expected that there is little room for growth in the future. Although hydropower generation does not directly cause pollution, it has always been controversial because of its high requirements on terrain and damage to ecosystems. Nuclear power, like water and electricity, although there is no carbon emission problem, but nuclear waste and nuclear pollution have been the two major problems in the world, in addition, the safety of nuclear power is not negligible, so our country is also cautious about the development of nuclear power; Wind power and solar power generation is not the same, these two power generation methods are clean, renewable, and there is no "fatal" shortcomings, but also the current power generation project that China strongly supports. In the long term, the development prospects of wind power and photovoltaic power generation are very impressive.

3 Wind power generation

3.1 Advantages of wind power generation

As one of the main ways of power generation, thermal power generation consumes a lot of energy. Coal resources are non-renewable resources, and every minute that is mined and burned is a minute less. Wind power, on the other hand, does not have to worry about being consumed, nor does it have to worry about air pollution after coal is burned. Wind power generation is the most environmentally friendly compared to other forms of power generation. The burning of coal for thermal power generation produces a large amount of carbon dioxide after combustion, which has a great impact on the greenhouse effect. Nuclear power generation also has high risks, such as the nuclear power plant leakage incident in Japan, which is fatal to human beings, other organisms and the environment. There is no doubt that wind power will play an increasing role in the energy production needs of society in the coming years. It is a cheap, clean, renewable, non-polluting source of energy. Plus, it can also generate electricity without needing any water; Solar energy also has these advantages. Although the wind speed is variable, the wind has no chance of running out.

Compared with traditional power generation, wind power is more greenhouse friendly and environmentally friendly. Taking the first offshore wind power station built in China as an example, the annual power generation of a single machine reaches 4.4 million KWH, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions of about 3,500 tons and sulfur dioxide 11 tons per year. According to statistics, in 2006, China's total power generation thermal power accounted for 83.2%, hydropower accounted for 14.7%, and thermal power fuel is basically coal, annual carbon dioxide emissions reached more than 3 billion tons, if vigorously promote wind power this renewable clean energy, annual carbon dioxide emissions reduction is very considerable, the greenhouse effect has slowed down. China is advanced in the use of energy resources, advocating the environmental protection concept of "Jinshan silver mountain is not as good as green water and green mountains". From the geographical environment and resources distribution analysis, our country has a great advantage in this respect. China's Xinjiang, Mongolia, Gansu and other places are located on the plateau, and most of the wind power stations are built in the northwest area, with a large amount of wind energy reserves. Offshore areas are vast, and wind energy resources can be fully utilized and not wasted. As the cleanest, most environmentally friendly and most efficient resource, wind energy has the highest development potential compared with other power generation methods. Wind farms can be classified into offshore and onshore according to geographical location. The wind condition at sea is better than that on land, and the change rate of wind speed in both magnitude and direction is lower, the turbulence intensity is smaller, and the fatigue load is lower. The life of the fan is effectively extended. Offshore wind power can be used for a high number of hours and is free from the constraints of population density.

The construction time of wind power equipment is very short, the installation time of a single unit only takes a few weeks, the construction time of 50,000 kilowatt capacity wind power generation is about half a year to a year, the installation mode of wind power generation is flexible, and every time the increase of funds and indicators, you can install new units. With the development of science and technology, more and more high-tech are used in wind turbines, and the safety of wind turbines is getting higher and higher. Unit life can be up to 20 years. At present, the unit installed capacity cost of medium-sized wind turbines has been close to thermal power, lower than oil and nuclear power. If you consider the transportation costs and environmental protection costs of coal power, then wind power is currently the cheapest energy source. The operation and maintenance of wind turbines is relatively simple, and its level of automation is high. The actual area of the wind turbine is also relatively small, and wind power can form complementary systems with other forms of energy generation such as photovoltaic, hydropower, etc., and can also be operated separately, and the distributed layout is very advantageous.

3.2 Principle of wind power generation

Wind power generation is the use of wind to drive the rotation of windmill blades and increase the rotation speed through the acceleration machine, so as to drive the generator to generate electricity.