Energy transformation is the only way to sustainable development

The world's energy development is in an era of unprecedented great changes in a century. Since the Industrial Revolution, the large-scale development and utilization of fossil energy has greatly promoted the progress of human civilization, but it also brings about some prominent problems, such as lack of resources, environmental pollution, climate change, health and poverty. Promoting the world energy transformation is the only way to realize the sustainable development of all mankind. From the point of view of China and the world, energy transformation mainly embodies four trends and characteristics.

Firstly, it is the general trend of world energy transformation to implement clean substitution on the energy supply side and electric energy substitution on the energy consumption side to form a clean-dominated and electricity-centered energy pattern. It is estimated that by 2050, the proportion of global clean energy in primary energy consumption will exceed 70%; the installed capacity of clean energy power generation will reach 22 billion kilowatts, accounting for more than 80% of the total installed capacity; and the annual per capita electricity consumption will reach 6,200 kilowatt-hours when the global electricity consumption exceeds 60 trillion kilowatt-hours.

Secondly, the development of energy systems towards global interconnection. Coal, oil and natural gas have experienced the development process from point-to-point supply to regional allocation and transnational allocation. With the transformation of energy pattern to clean-dominated and electricity-centric, power grid will become the main platform for energy allocation in the future. In the future, the interconnection mode of global power grids will undergo a major change, with the transmission scale becoming larger and larger and the transmission distance becoming farther and farther. Transnational interconnection will change from hand-in-hand to heart-in-hand, from low-power exchange and surplus-deficit mutual assistance at present, to large-capacity transmission, large-scale energy base and direct transmission to load center.

Thirdly, the energy industry is upgrading to high quality and efficiency. The energy transformation centered on clean energy and electricity will effectively promote the transformation of energy industry from fossil energy-centered industrial cluster to clean energy and power-centered industrial cluster. The proportion of green low-carbon industries such as new materials, new energy, energy storage, electric vehicles and high-efficiency power equipment will increase dramatically, which will drive the transformation and upgrading of upstream and downstream industries.

Fourthly, integration is an important trend of energy technology development. On the one hand, power technologies such as efficient and clean power generation, advanced transmission and transformation (UHV, flexible DC, superconducting transmission, etc.), large power grid operation control, energy storage and other power technologies continue to make innovations and breakthroughs; on the other hand, energy and power will be deeply integrated with modern information and communication technologies and control technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of Things, 5G, etc. Integrating degree, creating a highly controllable and flexible intelligent energy system, realizing multi-energy complementarity and intelligent interaction, meeting users'various energy needs, and promoting a new round of energy revolution and world economic transformation.

Promoting the world energy transformation is to build the global energy internet. The essence of global energy Internet is "smart grid + UHV grid + clean energy". It is an important platform for large-scale development, large-scale configuration and efficient utilization of clean energy. We should gather all forces, accelerate the construction of the global energy internet, promote the implementation of "two substitutes, one improvement and one return" (i.e., clean substitution and energy substitution, substantially improve the level of electrification, let fossil energy return to the attributes of raw materials), build a green, low-carbon, interconnected and shared energy community, and promote the sustainable development of mankind.