China

Highlights in 2019
Highlights in 2019

 

High impact innovation activity triggered by MI

Firstly, every year the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEE CAS) holds workshops for Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and the Chinese participating institutes/companies in MI IC groups to promote the academic exchanges and cooperation in IC fields. Secondly, IEE CAS is in charge of editing strategic research reports, providing suggestions for technology development and international cooperation concerning MI ICs. Thirdly, IEE CAS sets up MI WeChat Official Account and website in China to enhance the promotion of MI domestically.


Impact of your national clean energy innovation activity

The Chinese government attaches great importance to clean energy innovation, gradually increases the investment in clean energy R&D since 2016, and actively promotes to realize the “Doubling Plan”.


Update on clean energy innovation policies and strategies

China actively promotes grid parity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation. On January 9, 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Administration jointly issued “Notice on Actively Promoting Non-subsidized Internet Access for Wind Power and Photovoltaic Power Generation” and laid out a range of requirements and support policy measures.

In June 2019, China released the “Green and High-Efficiency Cooling Action Plan”. The key tasks include: raising space cooling Minimum Energy Performance Standards to or above developed standards levels, supporting the development of more efficient cooling technologies and enhancing cooling-related energy-saving retrofits.

Financial Subsidy Policy for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles. This notice lays out the five areas of improvement to strengthen financial subsidy policy to further promote and accelerate deployment of New Energy Vehicles (NEV) in China. The objective is to further adjust the policy framework to the development of the NEV market and create enabling conditions for further scale up of the NEV market.

GB/T 50378-2019 Assessment standard for green buildings (revision). The assessment standard for green buildings was updated in 2019. Definition updates for green buildings has been expanded to cover life-cycle resource considerations, including embodied energy, recyclability characteristics etc.


Major innovation initiatives and programmes in 2019/20

In 2019, the “Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Energy Technology” Project and the “Nuclear Safety and Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology” Project were launched by MoST in China to support 40 innovation projects, with total public support of 0.6 billion RMB.

In 2019, MoST funded 20 innovation projects to support Chinese entities joining the IEA TCPs, including these areas – fossil energy clean technology; renewable energy research, development and application; energy efficiency; hydrogen and fuel cells; fusion energy technology; and building energy optimization; with total public support of 60 million RMB.


Major activities in support of the Innovation Challenges in 2019/20

On 29 -31 May, 2019, as an important side event of the MI-4, the 5th MI IC1 Smart Grids Deep-Dive Workshop was jointly held in Vancouver, Canada, by the IEE CAS, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian National Research Council, Italy Ricerca Sistema Energetico, and the Ministry of Science and Technology of India. More than 100 representatives of international organizations, scientific research institutions and enterprises from more than 20 countries attended the meeting. “Smart Grids Innovation Challenge Country Report 2019: Strategies, Trends and Activities on Jointly Identified Research Topics (START)” was officially released in May 2019 during MI-4. As an important outcome of ICs, the book edited by IEE CAS and prepared by 14 members in the IC1 group.

China hosted the conference “Mission Innovation – The 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels” on April 2-4, 2019 in Yantai for IC4. The conference was organized by Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion CAS, Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Department and Yantai Municipal People’s Government. More than 70 experts, scholars, representatives of governments and enterprises from 10 countries attended the conference.

Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS proposed “Liquid Sunshine” in China, which was named one of the best technical pathways for IC5.


Other Mission Innovation related activity in 2019/20

Mission Innovation-Chinese Secretariat was established in 2019 approved by MoST.

The main responsibilities of the “Mission Innovation-Chinese Secretariat” are as follows:

  • To support and promote China’s participation in beyond 2020 work under the MI framework, enhancing international participation;
  • To establish a platform for MI promotion, expanding MI’s domestic influence;
  • To carry out MI strategic research work and organize the preparation of strategic research reports, providing suggestions for China’s international scientific and technological cooperation plan under the framework of MI.

On January 16 2019, as the supporting institution for “Mission Innovation-Chinese Secretariat”, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences hosted the “Mission Innovation-2019 Chinese Annual Summary Meeting” in Beijing. Officials form MoST in China and representatives from institutes in charge of each ICs(Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion (GIEC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin University etc.) participated in the meeting and discussed the MI Innovation Challenges work in China. “Mission Innovation-Chinese Secretariat” will continue to earnestly perform its duties.


National plans and priorities for clean energy innovation

In January 2020, MoST in China carried out collection work concerning major research and development needs of the National Key Research and Development Plan – “14th Five-Year Plan”, including clean energy and other sectors. Guides for 2021-2025 key special projects on various sectors will be issued in the near future.