The Economic Information Daily published a special report for the 15th Five-Year Plan period titled Five National Development Priorities First Proposed in the 15th Five-Year Plan: For the Country’s Fundamental Interests – Marching Toward Greener and Newer Energy Development – Decoding the Path to Building a Powerful Energy Nation from Three Dimensions, written by reporters Song Zhenyuan and Wang Lu on May 11. The article notes that due to the Middle East conflicts, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil transportation, has been intermittent, sending energy crises rippling across the globe.

China relies on imports for over 70 percent of its oil supply. How has it remained unshaken amid such turmoil?

“Sound strategies precede solid achievements.” From the proposal of the new energy security strategy in 2014, to the first call to “accelerate efforts to build a powerful energy nation” in 2021, and the explicit inclusion of “building a powerful energy nation” in the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan, China has leveraged the certainty of high-quality development to counter various uncertainties. It has consolidated the foundation of energy security, forged ahead on a greener and more innovative path, and blazed a distinctive Chinese path for energy transition.

Above the deep sea stands a massive yellow steel behemoth: 120 meters tall, equivalent to a 40-story building, weighing over 50,000 tons with steel consumption exceeding seven Eiffel Towers, and covering a footprint as large as two football fields.

This is the world’s first 100,000-ton deepwater semi-submersible production and storage platform, the Deep Sea No. 1 Energy Station, located at China’s first independently developed ultra-deepwater gas field with a depth of 1,500 meters – the Deep Sea No. 1 Gas Field.

“Following the full commissioning of its Phase II project last June, Deep Sea No. 1 has become China’s offshore gas field with the highest daily output. To date, it has produced more than 16.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas, effectively securing the country’s energy supply,” a senior official from China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) stated.

Guaranteeing energy supply and security constitutes an overriding national priority that cannot be overlooked for a single moment. Given China’s basic energy endowment – rich in coal, poor in oil and gas – securing full control over its energy supply has always topped the agenda for building a powerful energy nation.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s total energy output surpassed 5 billion tons of standard coal, accounting for one-fifth of the global total, with its energy self-sufficiency rate steadily maintained above 80 percent. Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan, China has set a new target of raising its comprehensive annual energy production capacity to 5.8 billion tons of standard coal by 2030.

Globally, geopolitical conflicts have reshaped the international energy landscape. International energy prices have fluctuated drastically since the start of this year, and uncertainties surrounding resource imports have risen markedly. Domestically, China’s energy consumption will maintain rigid growth, creating greater challenges in balancing reliable energy supply and green transition.

“The energy crisis triggered by Middle East conflicts has affected numerous countries, once again highlighting the critical importance of self-reliant energy supplies and sufficient supply resilience,” commented Sun Chuanwang, Professor at the China Center for Energy Economics Research, Xiamen University.

Where weaknesses lie, breakthroughs follow.

Domestically, China has rolled out medium- and long-term strategies to boost oil and gas reserves and production, ensuring stable crude oil output at roughly 200 million tons annually alongside steady growth in natural gas production. It has accelerated the planning and construction of oil and gas infrastructure: the total mileage of long-distance oil and gas pipelines now exceeds 200,000 kilometers, while the total receiving capacity for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tops 120 million tons per year.

Internationally, China has continued to consolidate and refine its diversified oil and gas import system. It conducts oil and gas trade cooperation with nearly 50 countries, sourcing imports from all major global oil and gas exporters.

Data from the National Energy Administration shows that in the first quarter, China’s industrial crude oil and natural gas output above designated size rose by 1.3 percent and 3.0 percent year-on-year respectively, while crude oil imports grew 8.9 percent year-on-year.

China is both shoring up weak links and amplifying its strengths.

While safeguarding independent supply of core oil and gas demand, the country has accelerated the development of a diversified and complementary energy supply system, resulting in a more robust and resilient energy portfolio.

As of the end of March this year, China’s total installed power generation capacity stood at nearly 4 billion kilowatts, ranking first worldwide.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, a host of major projects including the Yaxia Hydropower Station, desert, Gobi and arid zone new energy bases, and cross-regional power transmission corridors will be advanced at pace, lifting the capacity of West-to-East Power Transmission to over 420 million kilowatts.

Coal acts as a critical stabilizer amid volatility in international markets. Since April, China’s average daily scheduled coal output has remained above 12.5 million tons.

According to Guo Zhonghua, Director of the Policy Research Department at the China National Coal Association, the 15th Five-Year Plan period will witness a strategic repositioning of coal: shifting from a primary energy source to a backup and regulatory energy source, whose stable supply will mitigate uncertainties during critical periods.

If coal represents China’s core resource reserve, coal-to-oil and coal-to-gas technology serves as a strategic backup. From Yulin in Shaanxi to Ordos in Inner Mongolia and Ningdong in Ningxia, China has built the world’s largest and most complete coal chemical industrial chain, accounting for over 80 percent of the global total.

From oil, gas, coal and power to landmark infrastructure and reserve systems, systematic planning has enabled China’s energy sector to forge a steady path amid global turbulence.

To secure initiative in energy security, China must break free from reliance on fossil fuels.

Along the southeast coast, the Three Gorges Pioneer, the world’s largest single-unit capacity floating offshore wind turbine platform with a 16-megawatt unit, has been fully installed. On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, construction has begun on the Wumatang 50-megawatt trough concentrated solar power (CSP) plant operated by CGN, the world’s highest-altitude CSP facility.

Since the start of the year, the accelerated rollout of new energy projects underscores China’s strategic resolve and robust execution capacity for a low-carbon energy transition.

By the end of March, China’s cumulative installed renewable energy capacity reached approximately 2.4 billion kilowatts, accounting for over 60 percent of the national total. Wind and solar power together hit 1.9 billion kilowatts, nearly half of all installed capacity. Renewable energy made up roughly 70 percent of all newly added power generation capacity in the first quarter.

The Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan sets out clear goals: “accelerate the development of a new clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system,” “advance the secure, reliable and orderly replacement of fossil fuels with non-fossil energy, advance the coordinated development of wind, solar, hydro and nuclear power, and launch a ten-year doubling initiative for non-fossil energy.”

What does this deployment entail? “China’s energy mix will undergo a fundamental transformation,” explained Wang Zhixuan, Deputy Leader of the Expert Group at the China Electricity Council. He shared numerical projections: by 2030, non-fossil energy will generate more than half of China’s electricity, with wind and solar power contributing around 32 percent of total power output. New energy will become the primary source of incremental power supply, with newly added new energy generation exceeding the growth in overall electricity consumption.

As new energy evolves from a supplementary resource to a mainstream pillar, it faces mounting challenges in power absorption and grid integration. Industry consensus points to a shift from standalone operation to integrated and synergistic development.

Yang Yongping, President of Lanzhou University, argued that new energy will move toward integrated coordination of power generation, grids, energy storage and end-users, deep coupling of multi-energy complementarity, and cross-sector integrated applications. The energy system will evolve from simply expanding power generation capacity to deep integration of energy production with transportation, industry, computing infrastructure and buildings.

Pioneering practices are already underway. At SPIC Da’an Integrated Wind-Solar Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia Demonstration Project, a complete industrial chain of “green power – green hydrogen – green ammonia” has been established, resolving the core bottleneck of volatile wind and solar output to deliver stable ammonia production. Even with sharp fluctuations in wind and solar power generation, hydrogen production and ammonia synthesis lines can operate smoothly with flexible response capabilities.

“The Da’an project converts intermittent green power into controllable, continuous green fuel production capacity,” a project official noted.

This year’s Government Work Report put forward a new initiative for the first time: fostering emerging growth drivers including hydrogen energy and green fuels.

China’s renewable hydrogen production is transitioning from pilot trials to large-scale commercialization. As of the end of March, the total capacity of completed and under-construction renewable hydrogen production facilities nationwide exceeded 1 million tons per year, with over 250,000 tons per year already operational – more than doubling from the end of 2024 – and an additional 900,000 tons per year under construction.

China’s green fuel portfolio has expanded beyond traditional fuel ethanol and biodiesel to green ammonia, green methanol and sustainable aviation fuels. Moving forward, the National Energy Administration will launch pilot programs for green fuels, target breakthroughs in core technical equipment bottlenecks, and accelerate the development of green fuel standards and certification systems tailored to China’s national conditions.

While the new energy industrial chain achieves low-carbon manufacturing, the production and consumption of new energy are becoming increasingly interconnected.

China’s artificial intelligence sector is expanding rapidly, driving surging power demand for computing infrastructure. The Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan calls for coordinated layout of green power and computing hubs.

In Qinghai, a coordinated dispatch platform links computing centers to shift power consumption to periods of peak green power output. In Guizhou, over 50 clean energy power plants are located within a 200-kilometer radius of major computing hubs.

Pilot projects integrating computing and power are advancing technologies including joint forecasting of computing loads and new power generation, flexible regulation of computing power consumption, and intelligent dispatch, enabling deeper integration of “watts” (power) and “bits” (digital data).

Building a new energy system requires dismantling institutional obstacles and unlocking development momentum via institutional and mechanism innovation.

In April, spot electricity prices rose temporarily in the southern China power market amid robust electricity demand, volatile clean energy output and concentrated unit maintenance.

While flexible pricing with price fluctuations represents the direction of power sector reform, cross-regional resource allocation under the unified national market delivered effective supply support: power was transmitted from Gansu, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Ningxia and other provinces to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and cross-border new energy power was imported for the first time to ease local shortages.

With rising shares of new energy in the power mix, emerging models including virtual power plants, direct green power supply and smart microgrids demand matching market and pricing mechanisms.

The Opinions on Improving the Unified National Electricity Market System issued earlier this year sets a target of basically completing a unified national electricity market system by 2030, with a suite of innovative measures: improving cross-provincial and cross-regional power trading rules, facilitating broader new energy participation in power markets, and exploring capacity market mechanisms.

The value of green transition lies not only in optimizing the energy mix but also in driving industrial upgrading through low-carbon development, with market mechanisms playing a pivotal guiding role.

Green energy certificates serve as digital identity documents for renewable power, proof of corporate green electricity consumption, and a critical tool to meet global green trade requirements.

A total of 240 million green energy certificates were traded nationwide in the first quarter, marking a year-on-year increase of 21.19 percent, with manufacturing and data centers as the primary buyers. The National Energy Administration stated it will further refine the pricing formation mechanism for green energy certificates.

Unit 1 of the San’ao Nuclear Power Project in Zhejiang, invested by China General Nuclear Power Group, recently entered commercial operation. Launched in 2020, the project broke new ground by allowing private capital to participate in nuclear power construction, with Geely Group holding a 2 percent equity stake.

Today, 20 private enterprises hold equity stakes in 12 nuclear power projects, with total private investment exceeding 55 billion yuan and a maximum private equity share of 20 percent.

This progress stems from consistent policy support: deepening market-oriented reform in competitive energy sectors, establishing long-term mechanisms for private enterprises to participate in nuclear, hydropower and other energy projects, and optimizing the business environment to lower market entry barriers for private firms throughout approval, operation and financing processes.

In the first two months of this year, private investment in key energy projects grew by over 10 percent year-on-year. Private enterprises account for more than half of the 99 approved direct green power supply projects, and 45 percent of the 535 operational virtual power plants nationwide.

Wang Zhixuan predicted that the drive to build a powerful energy nation will unlock major growth opportunities across multiple industrial sectors: new energy power generation, advanced energy storage, power equipment and grids, integrated energy services, and digital energy technology.

Turbulent global shifts harbor new opportunities, and challenges temper resolve. Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, regardless of shifting international landscapes, China will uphold its strategic resolve to pursue greener and more innovative energy development. Sustained efforts to build a powerful energy nation will enable the country to seize the initiative and forge ahead steadily amid global changes.

(Reporters: Song Zhenyuan, Wang Lu)