Europe, Shanxi swap ideas on clean energy transition

The first Europe-China Workshop on Clean Energy Transition – a sub-forum of the 2021 Taiyuan Energy Low-Carbon Development Forum (TELC) – was held on Sept 4 in Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province.

The workshop's aim was to develop the TELC into a leading dialogue platform with global influence in the energy field, a sci-tech achievement-disseminating platform and an international cooperation-matchmaking platform, as well as to share the knowledge of European countries in the field of energy transition.

Experts and academics from home and abroad, representatives of international organizations, foreign government officials and businesspeople attended the event.

It focused on the three key areas of China-Europe coal transition solutions, as well as the transition of energy companies, the hydrogen energy economy and distributed renewable energy.

Participants discussed the experience and lessons to be had from European green hydrogen energy developments from different angles, and made suggestions on the development of China's hydrogen energy economy and especially its hydrogen industry.

International energy industry leaders, such as Total and Siemens, shared their transition experience and exchanged views on the transition strategies of Shanxi coal industry related companies, in areas such as technology research and development and new business models.

The workshop also held roundtable discussions on the clean energy transition and development of related enterprises in the coal industry supply chain, on the policy enlightenment to be gained from the clean energy transition experience and lessons of Europe – especially in Germany – for China and especially for Shanxi.

Patrick Graichen, executive director of German think tank Agora Energiewende, said that in the past, the share of coal energy in Germany was relatively high, but it had fallen.

"During the energy transition process of the past few decades, we felt that first of all, there must be a legal system and a systematic top-level design," Graichen said.

"Second, in the process of coal removal, we still retain some coal power plants and use them as backup power plants when there is no wind and solar energy. And we have invested in a lot of renewable energy fields, which can drive high electricity prices down," he added.

During the workshop, TELC, Agora Energiewende and Shanxi Energy Research Association signed a tripartite memorandum of cooperation to advance the Shanxi clean energy transition agenda.

The three parties plan to join hands to coordinate and organize exchanges and cooperation between Germany and Shanxi in the form of seminars, field trips and training.

In addition, they will support research related to the energy transition and project cooperation with relevant institutions and universities in Germany and Shanxi.