Chen Xinhua: There is a Saudi Arab waiting to be exploited in China

As long as there is profit space, professional energy saving company candevelop in order to play roles of energy saving technology and talents.

Reporter: Zhao Yuying

During theinterview, Dr. Chen points out the problems in China’s energy industry, andprovides his expectation of development tendency of energy industry. Currentenergy industry depends on coal, oil, and some other fossil energy. However, inusing fossil energy, China’s extensive mode causes huge waste. It is widelysaid that “there is a Saudi Arab waiting to be exploited in China”, referringto millions of coal boilers and oil refineries. As long as we can make properadjustment to current energy mode, we will surely receive large benefits. Forexample, as to the common problem of industrial boilers around China, thesesmall-scale industrial boilers without dust removal, desulfurization equipmet,or proper supervision cause huge waste and environmental problems.

Dr. Chenthinks that we shoud shift from over-emphasis on quantity in the past toemphasis on quality, trying to improve oil quality, stabilize electric powerfrequency and voltage, in order to provide better energy for national economicdevelopment.  

Dr. Chenthinks that the key of pushing forward energy saving lies in talents, yet fornow, no universities in China have set up energy saving discipline. Even thoughthere is environment science discipline which seems similar, the focus of suchdiscipline is mainly to research on processing of polluted water, which haslittle to do with fossil energy saving highly needed in China. 

Nowadays,many frontline engineers in energy industry only focus on keeping machine’soperation while not knowing how to save energy. We should try to make energysaving a profitable industry, because the profit space enables professionalenergy saving companies to develop in order to play roles of energy savingtechnology and talents. Therefore, Dr. Chen has advised Tsinghua University tofirst establish energy saving discipline in order to make up the lack oftalents and technology in China.

Dr. Chenthinks that in the future ten years, there won’t be a too big change in China’senergy industry. Unlike IT industry, energy industry, as a heavy industry,follows thermodynamics conservation law, and therefore it is unlikely that wecan achieve revolutionary breakthroughs in development. The energy industry hasgreat inertia, and therefore we can only gradually adjust it. In order to solveChina’s energy problem, we should reduce expenditure and enhance utilizationefficiency of current energy rather than broaden sources of supply.

Now, toimprove utilization efficiency of energy industry can be improved in tworespects:

1. T Use of Energy

We humanbeings need electricity, heating power and mobility, and our temperature rangevaries greatly. We should put energies at their proper places. For example, asto natural gas electricity generation, we can use high temperature forelectricity generation, moderate temperature for heating supply in residents’housing, and low temperature for bathrooms and swimming pools. Even the mostefficient coal electricity generation factory nowadays can only achieve 45%heating utilization rate, and many other energies are wasted. If we can T usethese energies, we can largely improve utilization rate of energy.

2.Circular Utilization of Resources

Currently,the most practical new resource is liquefied natural gas. A cubic meter ofnatural gas can replace a ton of gasoline, while the price is only half of thatof gasoline. However, the supply of liquefied natural gas in China is stilllimited and the standard also relatively lags behind. 

Whentalking about his expectation of China’s energy industry in the future tenyears, Dr. Chen states that “no one can imagine the price of gasoline canexceed $100 ten years ago, but today’s world mainly depends on fossil energy,which has still not been changed till today. Though development of new energywill be faster than fossil energy, base is still small, and therefore inforeseen future, new energy can still not become main stream of energy industry”.

Dr. Chenthinks that in the future ten years, there won’t be too big a change in China’senergy industry. Unlike IT industry, energy industry, as a heavy industry,follows thermodynamics conservation law, and therefore it is unlikely that wecan achieve leap-forward development. The energy industry has great inertia,and therefore we can only gradually adjust it.

Introduction of Chen Xinhua:

Work inBP, China, chairman of China - EU Chamber of Commerce Energy Committee, senioradviser of Shanghai Energy Research Institute