Since 2017, the country has been vigorously promoting clean heating in northern regions. According to industry statistics, as of the end of 2021, the total heating system area in northern China was 22.5 billion square meters, of which 15.8 billion square meters were clean heating, with a clean heating rate exceeding 70%. There are 8250 clean heating enterprises involved nationwide, with a total industrial output value of 910 billion yuan and 1.2 million employees. The clean heating industry is a key area and important lever for achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward the goal of high-quality development. High quality development is the theme of economic and social development, and the most crucial aspect is how to achieve green and low-carbon development in various fields; In the context of dual carbon, the major national strategic decision of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality” will have a profound impact on China’s energy production and consumption for a long time to come. The “1+N” dual carbon policy system also clearly proposes to continue promoting clean heating in northern regions and accelerate the green and low-carbon level of the building heating industry.
China has achieved clean substitution of heat sources during the 13th Five Year Plan period, mainly manifested in the transformation of heat source infrastructure, including coal to gas and coal to electricity, on the heat source side; During the 14th Five Year Plan period, “energy conservation” has become the primary energy source, and reducing pollution and carbon emissions, as well as prioritizing energy conservation, are the main development directions of the industry.
By 2030 or even longer, with the achievement of dual carbon targets, changes in the power system, and changes in the supply and consumption side structure, significant changes will also occur in the heating system. So we need to gradually build a new heating system that can adapt to the new power system, which is a new direction that the entire heating industry will gradually achieve in the future
Clean heating has solved the problem of “whether there is” or not, but it is far from meeting the requirements of high-quality development and modern industrial system. Further solutions are needed to address the issue of “whether it is good or not”. Dr. Zhao Wenying summarized the important position of the heating industry in the current dual carbon strategy, including the following aspects:
- The carbon emissions in the heating industry are very high. During the heating season of 4-6 months each year, the emissions of carbon dioxide from rural and urban areas in northern China are approximately 1 billion tons, which is roughly equivalent to the emissions of the entire transportation industry. Therefore, in order to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the heating industry must achieve green and low-carbon development, otherwise the dual carbon goal will be impossible to talk about.
- The energy-saving potential of the heating industry is very great. The heating industry generally faces the situation of relatively backward infrastructure and high energy consumption. Through smart heating methods, energy savings of 10% to 20% can be achieved, and there is great potential for carbon reduction.
- Heating plays a crucial role in the entire energy system. At present, the main form of heating is cogeneration units, with 40% of thermal power units being cogeneration. New backgrounds and directions such as decoupling of heat and power and flexibility transformation of coal-fired power have put forward higher requirements for the development of the heating industry.
In order to adapt to the construction of new power systems and respond to new trends and changes in thermal systems, and to solve the problem of whether the heating industry is good or not, Dr. Zhao Wenying has proposed the concept of “new smart heating system” for the first time in the industry in the past two years, mainly from the following perspectives:
- The purpose of the new intelligent heating system is to achieve on-demand and precise heating for the entire industry, and to achieve energy conservation and carbon reduction. The definition of a new smart heating system should no longer be limited to the use of automated and intelligent means, facilities, or management platforms, but rather a system engineering involving various links such as “source network load storage”.
- The future positioning of the new intelligent heating system includes adapting to the characteristics of the new power system, being an important component of the new energy system, a key area for building the new energy system, and an important lever for comprehensively improving the green and low-carbon level of buildings.
- The connotation of the new smart heating system: Guided by the dual carbon goal, based on the informatization and automation of the heating industry, through the deep integration of new generation information technology and the entire process of “source network load storage” in the heating system, ultimately achieving a new heating system that provides on-demand heating and precise heating. It covers a wide range of content, such as actively promoting the transformation of coal-fired heating, energy-saving and carbon reducing transformation of heating pipelines, energy-saving transformation of buildings (three transformations), promoting multi energy complementarity, big data regulation and scheduling systems and platforms, and heating metering (three promotions). Collaborate to promote energy conservation, pollution reduction, carbon reduction, and green expansion, and build a “source network load storage” synergy.
Thoughts on Thermoelectric Synergy
The new power system of thermoelectric synergy has the following characteristics:
- The increasing penetration rate of new energy poses challenges to the balance of the power system. The fluctuation of electricity and the disturbance to the power grid, as well as the changes in demand on the load side, including morning and evening peak hours and seasonal peak valley differences, are challenges brought by the new power system. Therefore, in the future, new power systems hope to have terminal adjustable and controllable flexible loads to increase the inertia of the power system. This is a challenge faced by the power system and also a demand for the future.
- Regarding electricity and heat, theoretically speaking, the two have strong complementarity. When it comes to electricity, most people think of power generation, transmission, distribution, real-time balancing, and the voltage balance of the power system is very stable. It is difficult to store electricity on a large scale, but power terminals can measure it. In the future, with the emergence of new electricity scenarios, it will also present a flexible and disorderly state.
Heat is very stable and easy to store at low cost. But the temperature and grade of heat are different, and it is also a difficult point in terms of measurement and pricing.
Heat is very stable and easy to store at low cost. But the temperature and grade of heat are different, and it is also a difficult point in terms of measurement and pricing.
Electricity and heat have many complementary properties in terms of source grid charge storage. From the perspective of future trends, the decoupling of power generation, transmission, distribution, and utilization on the power side should be gradually achieved, pursuing thermal electric synergy. Moreover, from the perspective of terminals, both electricity and heat in the future should be adjustable, controllable, and finely managed. Therefore, electricity and heat in the future have strong synergy and complementarity in the new energy system
Dr. Zhao Wenying stated that there is also significant complementarity between some scenarios of electricity storage and heat storage. Overall, in many scenarios where terminals directly use heat or cold, thermal or cold storage is more competitive. Compared to electricity storage, the cost of storing heat and cold is very low, about one-fifth to one tenth of that of electricity storage.
Nowadays, the country is vigorously promoting long-term energy storage, such as pumped storage for 6-8 hours, compressed air, and liquid flow batteries, which can reach more than 4 hours or even 8-10 hours. However, these are all daily adjustments. If you want to achieve longer cycles, it is difficult to rely solely on energy storage. But for hot and cold storage, large-scale cycles or even cross seasons are very easy to achieve
The biggest issue with electrochemical energy storage currently is safety, as it is prone to fire and explosion, but there are no such problems with heat and cold storage. And for scenarios where the terminal uses heat or cold, after storing electricity, it is necessary to achieve conversion – converting electricity back into cold and hot for utilization. If hot and cold storage is directly carried out, the terminal can be directly utilized, which is a very obvious advantage. Therefore, overall, compared to electricity storage, thermal storage has significant advantages in scenarios where cold and hot are directly utilized at the terminal.
Dr. Zhao Wenying also pointed out that about 50% of the global terminal energy consumption is directly used for cooling and heating. Therefore, from the perspective of market space, the future market space for thermal and cold storage is also very broad.
So in the next article, we will mainly focus on the practice of hot topic collaboration to comprehensively understand the advantages of thermoelectric combination.
