During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China will develop a number of new competitive advantages in energy technologies.

The “14th Five-Year Plan for Scientific and Technological Innovation in the Energy Sector,” recently issued by the National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Science and Technology, sets forth that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, breakthroughs will be achieved in addressing the major technological and equipment bottlenecks currently hindering the energy sector; forward-looking, disruptive energy technologies will rapidly emerge, new business forms and models will continue to arise, and a number of new competitive advantages in key energy technologies will take shape; the innovation system for energy science and technology, aligned with the requirements of high-quality development, will be further improved; and energy-related scientific and technological innovation will provide robust support to lead the high-quality development of the energy industry.

The Plan emphasizes that, as we enter the 14th Five-Year Plan period, energy‑related scientific and technological innovation is entering a phase of sustained and heightened dynamism. A host of emerging energy technologies—ranging from renewable energy and unconventional oil and gas to nuclear power, energy storage, hydrogen energy, and smart energy—are accelerating their iterative development at an unprecedented pace, becoming the core driving force behind the global energy transition toward green and low‑carbon pathways. This transformation is reshaping the energy sector, shifting its dominant factors from resources and capital to technology, and exerting profound and far‑reaching impacts on the world’s geopolitical landscape and on economic and social development.

The Plan sets forth specific targets in areas such as leading the development of a new type of power system with a gradually increasing share of new energy, supporting the proactive and orderly expansion of nuclear power while ensuring safety, promoting the clean, low‑carbon, and efficient development and utilization of fossil energy, and advancing the digital and intelligent upgrading of the energy industry. Centered on advanced renewable energy, next‑generation power systems, safe and efficient nuclear energy, green and efficient fossil‑energy development and utilization, and energy digitalization and intelligence, it identifies priority research‑and‑development initiatives, demonstration projects, and application‑scale deployment tasks; it also launches relevant pilot projects and formulates technology roadmaps.

The Plan proposes, in the area of green and efficient fossil energy development and utilization technologies, to focus on strengthening oil and gas security, carrying out research and development on key core technologies related to conventional and unconventional oil and gas exploration and production, transportation, and refining and petrochemical processing, thereby effectively supporting oil and gas exploration and production as well as the construction of a natural gas production‑supply‑sales system. It also targets major needs such as green and intelligent coal mining, prevention and control of major disasters, quality‑based and tiered conversion, and pollutant control, with the aim of establishing a technological framework for the green, intelligent, and efficient development and utilization of coal. Furthermore, it seeks to break through bottleneck technologies associated with gas turbines and elevate the level of gas‑fired power generation. In the realm of digital and intelligent energy‑system technologies, the Plan emphasizes the integrated development of next‑generation information technologies and the energy sector, conducting research on common, critical digital and intelligent technologies for energy applications, promoting deep integration between traditional industries—such as coal, oil and gas, power plants, and grid operations—and digital and intelligent technologies, and launching pilot and demonstration projects for smart energy systems at various energy facilities and regional scales, thus leading the transformation and upgrading of the energy industry. With respect to advanced renewable‑energy generation and comprehensive utilization technologies, the Plan focuses on the large‑scale, high‑proportion deployment of renewables, developing more efficient, cost‑effective, and reliable cutting‑edge technologies for hydropower, wind power, solar power, biomass, geothermal, and ocean energy, thereby supporting the high‑quality development and utilization of the renewable‑energy sector. It also aims to overcome key technical challenges in the efficient production, storage, transportation, and refueling of hydrogen, as well as in fuel‑cell technology, to advance the integrated development of hydrogen energy and renewable energy. Finally, in the field of safe and efficient nuclear‑energy technologies, the Plan calls for optimizing key technologies for Generation III nuclear power while enhancing the technological sophistication and economic viability of nuclear projects, strengthening strategic and forward‑looking innovations in nuclear energy, and promoting the sustainable development of the entire nuclear‑energy value chain, from upstream to downstream.

(This article was published on April 6, 2022, on Page 1 of the China Mining News.)