By Ding Qi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-02-29 15:02

With the international oil price hovering around $100 a barrel this week, energy issues have struck nerves worldwide. The topic is particularly challenging in China, one of the largest and growing energy consumers in the world.

At the Coal-Gen Sustainability China 2008 forum that closed on Thursday, representatives from power companies, experts, and government officials looked for widely applicable, sustainable, and long-term clean energy solutions for economic development. The two-day forum included more than technical discussions, but also a blueprint for the nation's energy future.

Multiple choices

As the world's largest coal producer and consumer, 70 percent of China's energy needs are currently met by coal, but that share is expected to shrink in the coming years.

"Currently, China has a wind power capacity of over four million kilowatts and biomass power capacity over two million kilowatts," said Xu Dingming, vice director of the office of National Energy Leading Group. "Although the absolute amount is not large, we are now strongly encouraging more renewable energy sources.”

In the country's first energy white paper released last December, the government pledged to promote hydroelectric, nuclear, solar and wind energy to meet growing economic needs and cut emissions.

"The nation should move toward 'clean, efficient, and multi-sourced energy'," said Xu.

"Our company is committed to biomass energy research and development," a spokeswoman from the Holland-based Ferro Techniek said. "We are glad to hear of Chinese government support for renewable energy development."

Turn the black into green

Is coal a dirty means of producing energy? Experts speaking at the meeting tried to convince otherwise. With modern technology and processing methods, coal can be used by power plants in a clean and efficient way and discharge as little waste as possible.

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As a promising clean coal-fire power generation technology, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) can extract the maximum energy from the coal and transforms it into electricity. Meanwhile, the desulfuration and carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology can effectively recycle power plant emissions, according to the experts.

Although IGCC and CCS technologies are not widely commercialized so far, they are expected to turn black coal into another green energy source, the experts said.

For energy efficiency, some experts think more is needed. According to Robert Blohm, an economist from Keen Resources Asia Ltd, the nation also needs a smooth energy transport network to ensure the efficient use of coal. "Taking Guizhou Province for example, the region has abundant reserve of coal resource and coal-bed natural gas. With an improved transportation network and natural gas pipeline system, these recourses can be exploited and transmitted to other needy provinces more quickly and more cheaply."

Share but not threaten

Since the energy issue has become a worldwide concern, multinational energy cooperation and technology exchange are expected to take place more commonly. However, with surging oil prices, energy deals sometimes tend to become more politically sensitive. For example, China National Offshore Oil Co Ltd's failed in its bid for the US-based Unocal in 2005.

"We'd like to share our advanced energy technology in some areas," said Zhong Luwen, a department chief from China Guodian Corporation (CGDC), a large power generator and energy equipment supplier. "But before any overseas cooperation or deals, we have to take a lot of things into consideration, such as the client's qualifications, economic and political conditions of its country, environmental issues, etc."

According to Zhong, CGDC has set up representative offices in several continents, not only for energy related deals, but also to keep abreast of the international energy market and study local conditions and commercial needs. Some of its high-end products such as plasma ignition technology have already been introduced successfully for use in power units in South Korea, Russia and India.

The forum was organized by Allied Resource Allocator (ARA), an international management service organization, as part of its Asia energy dialogue series.