China Energy/Power Technology, Strategic Layout of Resources: News & Discussions

[JSCh]

New Bohai gas discovery to ease winter shortages
By Zheng Xin | China Daily | Updated: 2018-10-18 09:14

A port worker assists with the docking of an LNG container ship at China National Offshore Oil Corp's terminal in Tianjin. [Photo by Jia Lei/For China Daily]

China National Offshore Oil Corp has made a large-sized natural gas field discovery in the Bohai oilfield, which will likely ease the gas shortage in northern China, the company said on Wednesday.

Discovery well Bozhong 19-6, which includes 10 wells with an average depth exceeding 4,000 meters, will see further evaluation of its gas reservoirs and proceed to the exploitation stage when all tests are completed, it said.

The company said earlier that the evaluation well was tested to produce some 1,000 barrels of oil and 6.4 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, with the gas reservoir seeing a total thickness of 348 meters.

According to Xue Yongan, chief geologist of CNOOC Bohai Oil Administration, the gas discovery will help safeguard China's energy security and reduce the nation's reliance on gas imports.

Over its five decades of exploration, most of the proven reserves in the Bohai Bay Basin, which has seven oilfields including Bohai and Shengli, have been crude oil rather than gas.

"Despite the fact that most of the gas reserves are located 3,500 meters beneath the seabed, which makes it challenging to find gas reserves, technical research and studies in recent years have laid a solid foundation and made exploitation possible," said Xue.

Compared with the oil and gas fields abroad, most of which are located in shallow areas, China has to rely more on deep drilling techniques to access resources as most of the reserves are located in deep-sea areas, he said.

Analysts believe that the gas project will play a significant role in easing the gas shortage of the Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin region of northern China.

According to Na Min, a senior analyst for oil and gas at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, China's top three oil and gas majors are likely to take all possible measures to ensure a relatively stable supply as the nation approaches the winter peak season.

CNOOC, which built China's first LNG terminal in 2006 and operates nine LNG terminals nationwide so far, has been pushing forward with the construction of LNG gas storage facilities while diversifying its overseas LNG sources in recent years to ensure adequate supplies of the clean fuel for the upcoming winter. It recently enlarged the capacity of its LNG terminal in Tianjin with the addition of a new 160,000-cubic-meter-storage capacity LNG tank.

CNOOC Gas and Power Group, a unit of China National Offshore Oil Corp, also signed a long-term purchase and sales contract supplementary agreement with France-based oil and gas giant Total Gas & Power Ltd on Tuesday, aiming to strengthen LNG cooperation, increasing contracted annual LNG purchases from one million tons for 15 years to 1.5 million metric tons annually for 20 years, said the company.

This is against the backdrop of China aiming to increase the share of natural gas in its energy mix in order to clean the environment. National oil majors have been increasing alternative supplies, including pipeline imports and LNG imports from other countries to ensure sufficient gas supply.

China's gas consumption increased 15 percent year-on year during the first six months of 2018, leading to a 50 percent surge in LNG imports, pushing the figure to a historic high of 24 million tons in the first half of this year.

Na said China would be far better equipped to handle the surge in winter demand this year. New and expanded long-term LNG contracts, the additional import capacity of LNG terminals, and increased storage and pipeline connectivity would alleviate the type of pressure which was seen last year.

China CNOOC says offshore gas discovery has over 100 bcm proven reserve
SINGAPORE, Feb 25 (Reuters) -

* China’s offshore oil and gas driller CNOOC Ltd said on Monday an offshore natural gas discovery, Bozhong 19-6, has verified proven geological reserve exceeding 100 billion cubic metres

* The state-controlled company said the reserve figure was certified by China’s Ministry of Land and Resources

* CNOOC first announced the discovery, which also contains condensate, a super light crude oil, in the Bohai Sea off north China, in late 2017 (Reporting by Chen Aizhu)


China CNOOC says offshore gas discovery has over 100 bcm proven reserve | Energy & Oil | Reuters

 

[JSCh]

Massive shale oil reserves found in north China
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-01 10:24:10|Editor: zh

TIANJIN, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Massive shale oil reserves have been found in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

According to Dagang Oilfield, a subsidiary of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), two flowing wells have seen shale oil flowing for more than 260 days, with a daily raw oil output of 20 to 30 cubic meters. The area has a storage of 100 million tonnes of such oil.

China has rich shale oil resources. According to the International Energy Agency, China has recoverable shale oil reserves of about 5 billion tonnes, second only to Russia and the United States.

The reserves will help with the development of shale oil and have great significance in national energy safety and economic development, according to CNPC.

Dagang Oilfield was established in 1964. It explores oil in 25 districts, cities and counties in China.

 

[JSCh]

China Energy chief says green measures are key
By Liu Zhihua | China Daily | Updated: 2019-03-14 09:21

A technician works on the Nomex production line of a subsidiary of China Energy in Lingwu, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

Ling Wen, president & CEO of China Energy, said the State-owned company will continue its efforts in the clean and efficient use of coal, and will further promote clean energy including hydrogen energy, to meet China's commitment to combat climate change.

The company, which was established in 2017 following the merger of Fortune 500 companies China Guodian and Shenhua Group, is now the world's largest producer of coal, thermal power, wind power, coal-to-liquids and coal-to-chemicals.

It has solved safety issues in coal production, and made remarkable progress in upgrading efficiency, apart from supplying quality coal to meet increased energy demand resulting from China's robust economic growth, said Ling, a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

"After solving safety and efficiency issues, the main challenge in the coal sector is environmental protection," Ling told China Daily during the ongoing two sessions.

Ling Wen, president & CEO of China Energy

He also said the world needs cooperation throughout not only in companies, but also in universities, governments and financial institutions, to address environmental problems such as climate change.

Ling predicted that, in China's total primary energy consumption, coal will drop by about one percentage point each year, because as the Chinese economy grows and energy demand increases, the energy mix will optimize to have more renewables.

He said China Energy will further improve the clean and efficient use of coal, while facilitating clean renewables such as wind and hydrogen energies.

Producing 16 percent of the total coal output in China, China Energy attaches great importance to environmental protection, by adopting effective measures and advanced technologies.

Its mining process is 100 percent mechanized, with an intelligent control system, and it has developed techniques to turn the explored underground coal pits into water reservoirs in order to protect groundwater resources.

For instance, the 35 water reservoirs in the Shendong coal mine areas in northwestern China hold 27 million cubic meters of water in total, equal to twice the volume of the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Besides, China Energy also plants trees to protect the ground surface of coal mines, and the average vegetation ratio at its coal mines has increased to more than 70 percent from just 3 to 10 percent before mining.

In 2014, the company's Zhoushan Power Plant became the world's first ultra-low emission coal-fired power unit. Now 98 percent of its 163 coal fired power plants have achieved an ultra-low emission standard.

As a result, the emission of dusts, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) - the main pollutants from burning coal - are respectively two, two and 19 milligrams per cubic meter, even much lower than China's emission standards for gas turbines, which are five, 35 and 50 milligrams per cubic meter.

Specifically, China Energy has the largest coal-to-hydrogen production capacity in China and in the world.

Ling, who is also an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, said as a scientist, he regards hydrogen energy as an "absolute clean" energy because it only has water as a byproduct while being produced and consumed.

According to the Hydrogen Council, deployed at scale, hydrogen could account for almost one-fifth of total final energy consumption by 2050, which would largely reduce emissions and contribute to containing global warming.

Ling believes China has very great potential in developing hydrogen energy. China is rich in hydrogen resources with an annual production capacity of more than 25 million metric tons. And China has huge hydrogen market demand due to the booming growth of new energy vehicles.

China Energy has been working on promoting hydrogen production and utilization in China.

It initiated and sponsored the China National Alliance of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell to promote low-cost hydrogen production, transportation, and the establishment of industry standards such as those regarding hydrogen refueling stations.

"We are now in the leading position in China's hydrogen energy sector, and we hope we can bring together all parties in the hydrogen community, calling for 'a hydrogen society' in China," Ling said.

 

[JSCh]

China to see further marketization upon unified gas pipeline operator: industry insider
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-14 15:05:15|Editor: mingmei

HOUSTON, March 13 (Xinhua)-- The Chinese natural gas sector would see increasing competition and a greater number of players in the supply side building upon the expected establishment of a unified national gas pipeline operating company, an industry insider has said.

It's highly possible that China would unveil the national natural gas pipeline company in 2019 with all existing trunk gas pipelines and some LNG receiving terminals integrated into the new platform, said Chen Gang, assistant general manager with Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange (SHPGX), at a panel discussion of the CERAWeek conference on Wednesday.

The establishment of the national gas pipeline company would make it possible to separate transmission and marketing of natural gas, Chen said. "The fair access of natural gas pipeline to the third party would have realistic foundation."

Natural gas suppliers would be diversified after the separation of transmission and marketing of natural gas, said Chen, adding that the price system of natural gas would become more enriched and the trading of pipeline gas would start to take off.

In the first place, all downstream players could choose from PetroChina, Sinopec Corp. or China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), according to Chen.

Now Chinese state-owned oil and gas companies have an integrated business mode with PetroChina contributing to the majority of domestic gas production and sales.

Chen predicted that China would have over 10 market players in the supply side, which would be a big step forward for downstream players.

Chinese town gas companies could move to the upstream and international oil companies could enter Chinese downstream gas market by tapping the national natural gas pipeline company, according to Chen.

Efforts would be made to step up the construction of gas infrastructure following the establishment of the national gas pipeline company, Chen added.

SHPGX and CNOOC would continue to issue third-party access products with LNG receiving terminals in 2019 with a long-term contract and the spot trading mode available, said Chen.

The establishment of a national oil and gas pipeline company would be subject to the reform of national petroleum and natural gas system and the proper timing of unveiling the national oil and gas pipeline company is under discussion, said Wang Yilin, chairman of PetroChina in early March.

 

[TaiShang]

https://greentechlead.com/wind/siemens-gamesa-drops-rank-in-wind-turbine-market-to-goldwind-35100

 

[JSCh]

Energy stealthily hitches ride in global trade
Fulfilling the world’s growing energy needs summons images of oil pipelines, electric wires and truckloads of coal. But MSU research shows a lot of energy moves nearly incognito, embedded in the products, and leaves its environmental footprint home.

March 21, 2019 - Author: Sue Nichols


Fulfilling the world’s growing energy needs summons images of oil pipelines, electric wires and truckloads of coal. But Michigan State University scientists show a lot of energy moves nearly incognito, embedded in the products of a growing society.

And that energy leaves its environmental footprint home.

In this month’s journal Applied Energy, MSU researchers examine China’s flow of virtual energy – the energy used to produce goods and products in one place that are shipped away. What they found was that virtual energy flowed from less-populated, energy-scarce areas in China’s western regions to booming cities in the energy-abundant east.

In fact, the virtual energy transferred west to east was much greater than the physical energy that moves through China’s massive infrastructure investment, the West-To-East Electricity Transmission Project. China is a powerful model of energy use, having surpassed the United States. In 2013, nearly 22 percent of global energy use occurred in China.

Conserving energy and managing its accompanying environmental impacts are a growing concern across the world, and it is crucial to take a holistic look at all the ways energy is used and moved,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability of MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS). “Only when we understand the full picture of who is producing energy and who is consuming it in all its forms can we make effective policy decisions.”

Virtual energy is considered critical to avoiding regional energy crises since commodities traded from one location to another include virtual energy. This means the importing area can avoid expending the energy to produce the imported commodities. The paper “Shift in a National Virtual Energy Network” examines how a region’s energy haves and have-nots meet economic and energy needs by acknowledging energy is tightly wound around economic growth and demand.

The researchers are first to focus on energy use after the 2008 global financial crisis, seeing how economic desperation can have a big, not always obvious, impact on energy – and the pollution and environmental degradation that can accompany its use.

“China, like a lot of places across the globe, has an uneven distribution of energy resources, and China also is developing quickly,” said the article’s first author Zhenci Xu, an MSU-CSIS PhD student. “We wanted to understand the true paths of energy use when economic growth kicks into gear after a financial crisis. Eventually, all the costs of energy use, including environmental damage and pollution, have to be accounted for, and currently policies focus primarily on physical energy, not virtual energy.”

The researchers found a persistent flow of total virtual energy from energy-scare to energy-abundant provinces increased from 43.2% in 2007 to 47.5% in 2012. Following the framework of metacoupling (socioeconomic-environmental interactions within as well as between adjacent and distant places), they also discovered after the financial crisis, trade was taking place between distant provinces – trade that came with energy’s environmental footprint.

The authors note these types of analyses are needed across the globe to guide policies that hold the areas that are shifting their energy consumption to appropriately contribute to mitigating the true costs of energy.

In addition to Liu and Xu, the paper is by Paul McCord and Mimi Gong of MSU-CSIS and Di Zhang of China’s Hunan University. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, MSU, Michigan AgBioResearch and China Scholarship Council.


Energy stealthily hitches ride in global trade - Department of Fisheries and Wildlife | Michigan State University

 

[JSCh]

Russia remains China’s largest crude oil source for 3rd year: report
Source:Global Times Published: 2019/3/24 20:18:39

Russia remains China’s largest crude oil source for 3rd year

A view of the construction site of Russia's petrochemical holding Sibur's ZapSibNefteKhim plant on the outskirts of Tobolsk in October, 2018. Photo: VCG

China's dependence on imported crude oil has climbed to about 70 percent with Russia remaining the country's largest supplier for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018, said an industry report.

With total import volume standing at 71.49 million tons in 2018, up 19.7 percent on a yearly basis, Russia's share was about 15.7 percent, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Angola, according to a report jointly released on Saturday by the China Petroleum Enterprise Association and a research center of the University of International Business and Economics.

Over the past six years, Russian crude oil exports to China more than doubled, while revenue generated by those exports to China have contributed to some 40 percent of Russia's fiscal revenues, said the report.

China's overseas crude oil sources expanded to more than 10 countries in 2018, and the US ranked among the top 10 for the first time, although the proportion the US had was small compared with major suppliers, standing at about 3 percent in the first quarter of 2018.

Last year, China's crude oil imports surged 10.1 percent year-on-year to 460 million tons, a record high, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed in January.

Crude production in the country fell in 2018 but at a slower pace compared with 2017. Total output stood at 190 million tons, down 1.3 percent year-on-year, NBS data showed.

Surging demand for crude oil has driven China's imports as the nation has established new oil refinery capacity and expanded its strategic storage, said the report, adding the falling output of domestic crude oil has also bulked up the imports.

According to the report, the growth rate of China's petroleum demand will witness slight decline in 2019 while imports will continue to increase, pushing the dependence on foreign oil to nearly 72 percent.

Meanwhile, natural gas imports came in at 90.39 million tons in 2018, up 31.9 percent year-on-year, according to the NBS data. Production of natural gas also saw obvious increase last year amid government efforts to encourage the use of clean energy. Total output came in at 161 billion cubic meters, up 7.5 percent year-on-year.

The report forecast that in 2019, China's natural gas imports would hit 143 billion cubic meters and dependence on foreign imports will increase to 46.4 percent from last year's 45.3 percent.

As the country has set its goal to build a low-carbon, high-efficiency clean energy system to boost its energy transformation, demand for crude oil will wind down, according to the report.

 

[JSCh]

Large petrochemical JV inaugurated to deepen Sino-Saudi cooperation
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-23 23:31:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan

SHENYANG, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A joint venture petrochemical company with a total investment of over 71 billion yuan (10.6 billion U.S. dollars) from China and Saudi Arabia was inaugurated in the city of Panjin in northeast China's Liaoning Province Saturday.

The company is one of the largest China-Foreign joint ventures in recent years in terms of investment scale.

The company, funded by world-leading energy company Saudi Aramco and two Chinese companies, Xincheng Group and China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO), is expected to be put into operation in 2024, and will promote the development of a fully integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Panjin.

With the capacity to refine 15 million tonnes of oil and produce 1.5 million tonnes of ethylene and 1.3 million tonnes of paraxylene a year, the annual sales revenue of the company is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan.

"We anticipate that this company will be a world-class petrochemical base in a few years," said Jiao Kaihe, Chairman of NORINCO.

The new company is a clear demonstration of Saudi Aramco's strategy to move from a buyer-seller relationship to one where the company can make significant investments to contribute to China's economic growth and development, said Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco's president and CEO.

He also believes this project will serve as a model to collaborate with China's Belt and Road Initiative and Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia.

The three partners signed an agreement in February, with Saudi Aramco holding 35% of the JV, NORINCO and Panjin Xincheng holding 36% and 29% respectively.

Panjin, about 500 km northeast of Beijing, is an important petrochemical industrial base of the country. Total sales income of more than 90 petrochemical enterprises in the city reached 189.8 billion yuan in 2018.

"This city is home to a large number of skilled petrochemical workers and technicians, and this project will create 3,000 jobs in Panjin," Nasser said.

The city has also reserved 14 square kilometers of land and built a 300,000-ton crude oil terminal for the project.

Above-scale petrochemical industrial added value rose 15.1 percent year on year in Liaoning last year, with crude processing volume up 13.5 percent to 80.96 million tonnes.

According to the provincial department of commerce, Liaoning's actual use of foreign capital increased by 36.2 percent in 2018.

Chen Qiufa, secretary of the CPC Liaoning Provincial Committee, hoped this new joint-stock company could help optimize the structure of the petrochemical industry of the province and boost the local economy.

 

[JSCh]

MARCH 25, 2019 / 2:58 PM / UPDATED 21 HOURS AGO
China's Sinopec to develop new shale gas field at Weirong in Sichuan | Reuters

SINGAPORE, March 25 (Reuters) - Sinopec Corp, China’s biggest shale gas operator, said on Monday it plans to develop a new field this year able to produce 1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of shale gas annually.

The state-run company said the field will tap a proven reserve equivalent to 124.7 bcm of gas at Weirong in the southwestern province of Sichuan. This marks its second major shale gas discovery after a flagship development at Fuling in the Chongqing region, situated in the same geological basin of Sichuan.

The company is drilling for shale gas in a 20,000 square-kilometre area in southern Sichuan, as well as western Chongqing. It earlier set a target to produce 10 bcm per year of shale gas by 2020.

China’s shale gas output accounts for only a small part of the country’s total gas production, at about 6 percent.

Separately, Sinopec reported high volumes of gas flows in an exploration well Dongye-1 in the Dingshan-Dongxi block, close to Chongqing. The well, which extends some 4,200 metres below surface level, yielded daily output of 310,000 cubic metres in test production, said Sinopec. (Reporting by Chen Aizhu Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

 

[JSCh]

Northern Part of China-Russia Gas Pipeline's Eastern Route 83 Pct Completed
CCTV+
Published on Oct 14, 2018

Construction of the northern section of the eastern route of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline has been completed by 83 percent, and the northern section is expected to meet the technical standards for operation by October 2019.

Connecting Heihe City of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Changling County of northeast China's Jilin Province, the northern part is 715 kilometers in length.

As scheduled, the entire eastern route of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline will be completed and put into operation by the end of 2020. After the completion of its construction, the new natural gas pipeline will be joined with China's existing natural gas transmission network, and provide areas in China's northeast, around the Bohai Sea Bay, and in the Yangtze River Delta with stable natural gas supply.

The part of the eastern route in China starts in Heihe City and ends in Shanghai. According to deals between the two countries, Russia will transmit 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China every year.

According to Dong Chunyan, a worker with China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd. (CPP), they have to overcome the most challenging weather conditions and follow the strictest technical requirements to put up the northern section.

Underwater tunnels completed for China-Russia gas pipeline
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-29 10:47:26|Editor: Liangyu

HARBIN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Construction of two underwater tunnels for the China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline has been completed and passed acceptance checks, constructors said.

The two tunnels, each 1,139 meters long, connect Heihe in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Blagoveshchensk in Russia.

This underwater shield crossing project passes through the Heilongjiang River along the Sino-Russian border. The workers had to overcome challenges such as extremely cold weather and complicated landforms to complete the project.

The project was completed as scheduled with high quality, the inspector SGS S.A. said, after going through the entire process together with China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd., the Chinese constructor.

The 3,371-km-long Chinese section of China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline starts in Heihe and terminates in Shanghai. Construction began in June 2015 and will be completed in 2020.

The Russian part of the pipeline, which started construction on Sept. 1, 2014, will link the Kovyktin and Chayandin gas fields in Siberia with the eastern port city of Vladivostok, covering a total distance of nearly 4,000 km.

Upon completion, the pipeline is expected to provide China with 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia annually.

 

[艹艹艹]

Wudongde hydropower station

 

[艹艹艹]

 

[JSCh]

China First Demonstrates the 100 kWh Na-Ion Battery System for Energy Storage---Chinese Academy of Sciences
Apr 01, 2019

The world's first energy storage power station based on the 100 kWh Na-ion battery (NIB) system was launched on 29th March, 2019, supplying power to the building of Yangtze River Delta Physics Research Center located in Liyang city.

This achievement was jointly completed by the team from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOP-CAS) and the HiNa Battery Technology Co., Ltd led by Prof. HU Yongsheng, marking the first demonstration of hundred-kWh-level NIB-based power station in China.

In the critical period of the transformation of energy consumption mode, the research and development of energy storage technologies becomes the driving force to reform the energy structure of China.

At present, various energy storage technologies including compressed air, high-temperature sodium battery, lead-acid battery, flow battery, Li-ion battery, etc. are developing in parallel, employing their own advantages in eliminating geographical, environmental and resource limitations. However, none of them can satisfy all the requirements for grid energy storage.

With the same working principle and similar battery components to Li-ion batteries, NIBs have become a rising star candidates and aroused a great deal of interest recently for the application in energy storage filed, especially towards the grid electric energy storage due to their advantages such as abundant resources, low cost, flexible portability, high energy conversion efficiency, long cycle life, good safety and maintenance-free.

Since 2011, the IOP-CAS has been dedicated to investigate the key materials and technologies for the low-cost and high-performance NIBs, developing practical NIB systems with our own intellectual property rights. In 2017, HiNa battery company based on IOP-CAS technology was founded to perform the pilot exploration in Liyang city, Jiangsu province.

Until now, ton-level production lines of cathode and anode materials have been established; the NIB cell fabrication line with MWh production capacity has been built; the NIB pouch cells with energy density of 120 Wh/kg and cycle life of 2000 cycles have been developed; the demonstration of NIB packs in E-bike, mini electric vehicle and household energy storage cabinet has been completed, establishing China’s international leading position in the fundamental research and commercialization promotion of NIBs.

The built 30 kW/100 kWh NIB power station will store the off-peak electricity from the grid and provide part of the electricity for the building of Yangtze River Delta Physics Research Center during on-peak period, realizing the power consumption mode called "valley electricity for peak use" to save the electricity cost, meanwhile, acting as the emergency power supply during the power grid cut-off.

The launch of this NIB power station effectively responds to the new demands of green, low-carbon, efficient and safe for energy reforms, promoting the application of clean energy technology in China to a new level and enhancing China's competitiveness and impacts in the field of energy storage technology.

Figure 1. The built hundred-kWh-level Na-ion battery-based power station. (Image by IOP)

Figure 2. The 30 kW/100 kWh Na-ion battery energy storage system dashboard.(Image by IOP)​

 

[TaiShang]

China's Mingyang Smart Energy to Supply Turbines to Largest Wind Power Project

TANG SHIHUA
DATE : APR 04 2019/SOURCE : YICAI

China's Mingyang Smart Energy to Supply Turbines to Largest Wind Power Project

(Yicai Global) April 4 -- Mingyang Smart Energy will supply 325 wind turbine generator systems to the world's largest wind power base in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for CNY4.7 billion (USD692.5 million).

State Power Investment, an investor in the project and its prime contractor, called for bids for equipment for the 6 million-kilowatt demonstrative first phase of the wind power base in Ulanqab, per a statement the famous wind turbine maker issued yesterday.

The Zhongshan, Guangdong province-based company won the bid for the fourth lot of the project, it said on April 2.

The statement offered no further details as to the technical parameters of the bid-clinching system, but merely said that its MySE4.0—156/100 system had carried the day.

With total investment of CNY42.5 billion (USD6.3 billion), the 6 million-kilowatt demonstration first phase of the wind power base has got the nod from the government at all levels, but SPIC has not yet revealed its construction timetable.

The project will be the world's single largest onshore wind power base after the completion of the first phase. The electricity it outputs will trade in the power market of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which will prioritize renewable energy in power generation, with the on-grid price the same as that of thermal power. The government will not, however, grant any subsidies.

With an effective wind field of 6,828 square meters, Ulanqab has been dubbed the 'Three Gorges Dam of the Sky' and the 'Wind Power Capital.'

The city has built an intensive network of power transmitters and transformers.

The wind power project is expected to transmit about 18.9 billion kilowatt hours of green electricity to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region each year once it is up and running.

https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/ch...supply-turbines-to-largest-wind-power-project

 

[JSCh]

15:53, 10-Apr-2019
Russian Gas Exports: Power of Siberia, power of future
Aljosa Milenkovic

Construction of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline enters its final stage. The pipeline is the first of its kind that directly connects the vast natural gas fields of Russia with consumers in China. It is scheduled to annually deliver 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas over the next 30 years.

Almost 99% of the Russian part of the pipeline is finished and now final works are done close to the Russian town of Blagoveshchensk, where Power of Siberia crosses into China. We visited Blagoveshchensk in the middle of March. A strong, but not unexpected blizzard greeted us with temperatures plunging as low as -20 degrees Celsius. That's not uncommon here in the middle of March.

And yet this is just a small example of how builders of the Power of Siberia had to endure tough weather to complete this project. At this moment they were laying in the ground the last remaining pipes on the Russian side, every day inching closer to China.

Snow blizzard in middle of March in Blagoveshchensk. /CGTN Photo

Energy shift of China

To get here, Power of Siberia already crossed 3000 kilometers of some of the most inhospitably terrain on the planet. It's journey will continue on the other side of the border where ultimately it will deliver natural gas to energy-hungry China.

In the wake of massive energy shift that China has embarked upon, of switching from coal and oil to more eco-friendly natural gas, this pipeline is just what China needs. It will bring it to the areas of China that are not accessible to the liquefied natural gas, or LNG ships, and also it will bring it from just across the mutual border without any possibilities for any meddling of the third parties.

As Dimitriy Abzalov, Political Analyst from Moscow told us, this pipeline is highly beneficial for China.

Heavy machines laying pipes for Power of Siberia gas pipeline. /CGTN Photo

"China is interested in having gas through the pipeline, which is directly connecting producer with the consumer. If tomorrow the U.S. 'colleagues' wants to pressure for instance Huawei again, or gas prices in Europe are more attractive to them, then their LNG ships will turn away from China. So, in order to have energy stability, China is interested in having reliable deliveries of the natural gas through the pipelines."

Power of Siberia: mutual beneficial

But Power of Siberia is not just in the interest of China. For Russia it means further diversification of natural gas deliveries, which are now mainly focused on Europe, opening of the new gas fields that were not exploited before, and maybe the most importantly, stopping the outflow of people from its Far East.

Depopulation is one of the main problems for the Russia's Far East and projects like this one will for sure keep here thousands of those intending to leave for the more prosperous regions.

Ekaterina Kireeva, Deputy Economy Development Minister. /CGTN Photo

Ekaterina Kireeva, Deputy Economy Development Minister of the Amur Region agrees that Power of Siberia will bring significant benefits to their region.

"It's a good job, it's a good employment opportunity and the second thing, we should consider this moment, is the good conditions for living. Everyday's living. Actually, if you have these two moments, you can be sure that more young people will make the right decision to stay here."

By the end of 2019, the first cubic meters of natural gas should start flowing through this pipeline.

As this project is seen as beneficial to both sides, already on the table are deals that should lead to the construction of new gas pipelines between Russia and China, mainly Power of Siberia 2, about which a number of officials from both sides are now openly talking.