2021, the start of the 14th five-year plan, is crucial to achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. About ways to realize these goals, Liu Yujing, Director of the China Electricity Team at Rocky Mountain Institute, shared her views on the first Central China Photovoltaic Forum held on June 24 in Wuhan. She believed that it was essential to improve the level of electrification and reduce emission from power generation.
Liu Yujing from RMI speaking at Central China Photovoltaic Forum
Liu Yujing said that, “using electricity in every possible scenario” is an important way to realize carbon neutrality. For long-distance flight, sea transportation and other cases that cannot be electrified, zero carbon fuel, such as green hydrogen and biomass fuel, can be used as much as possible. It is estimated that by 2050, the power demand of the whole society will reach 15 trillion kWh. The PV industry needs to strive for more shares from this larger cake.
How to build a new power system based on renewable energy?
Liu believes that it can be realized in three steps. First, onshore wind and utility-scale PV plants have already become the cheapest new power sources in most areas; second, it will take about three to five years for the marginal cost of newly installed renewable power to be lower than thermal power units; third, the consumption of the system restricts the development of wind and solar PV. At present, the cost of wind and solar PV has reached the lowest point. Therefore, we should now focus on solving the consumption problems.
