keeps the world touched.
You're listening to Roundtable.
I'm Steve today with Yuxin and Feifei.
Coming up.
Connecting a gigantic desert solar farm to the power grid is like performing open-heart surgery on the entire electrical system.
To keep the lights on, engineers need a shared playbook.
That playbook now exists.
We'll explore the new global standard forged by China and 13 other nations that's becoming the essential handbook for a renewable future.
After that, as China enters into the winter season, an invisible danger emerges indoors.
We're not just talking about the cold itself, but the problems that come with fighting it.
What does it look like to replace the age old smoke of coal with the clean hum of a heat pump?
This is the story of staying warm without getting hurt.
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And now.
Think of the global power system as the world's most complex engineering puzzle.
As colossal wind and solar farms, like those emerging in China's deserts, connect to the grid, ensuring that they communicate seamlessly and safely well, that's the ultimate challenge.
In a major breakthrough for the energy transition sector China, in collaboration with 13 nations, has just launched a new international standard.
The standard itself provides a unified global language for dynamic simulation.
That's the critical tool engineers use to model and prevent grid collapses.
This promises to build safer, more reliable power networks worldwide.
But what does it mean when a universal standard is introduced, and how will it specifically guard against blackouts as our dependence is growing, isn't it on the sun and the wind?
It's a bit of a complicated topic, but we'll break it down as simply as we possibly can.
Yuxin, what's it all about?
So China has successfully led and published its first international standard in the field of new energy generation modeling technology.
And this international standard was developed through four years of collaborative efforts involving experts from China and 13 other countries, including Germany, France and the United States.
This standard provides the first standardized generic simulation model for new energy generation systems, which is crucial for the dynamic simulation and also assessment of stability and safety in power systems integrated with large-scale new energy sources.
Right, but what does that actually mean?
What does this standard actually do?
Yeah, to be honest, through all of these words that I just run through, I don't quite get it.
This new international standard defines a kind of a unified universal simulation model for renewable power units that uses converters such as wind turbines and solar inverters.
So first of all, there are four new energy, let's say, power plants.
And in simple terms, it tells manufacturers how their equipment should be modeled, tells software developers how to implement their renewable energy models, gives grid operators a kind of common language to evaluate whether their renewable energy can be safely connected, and ensures wind and solar plants behave consistently in simulations.
And no matter which country they are in or whose software is used, they have that kind of same language to communicate with and to operate everything smoothly without having any kind of a huge blackout to happen.
You can think of it as perhaps the USB protocol, but this is in terms of renewable energy modeling.
It's like one set of rules So that different devices and makers and systems can work together seamlessly.
Before USB, for example, USB-C, every phone brand had its own charger.
Insanely annoying, right?
You'd have to find that specific charger.
Well, that would be the different languages, I guess, that you were referring to a moment ago.
It would be really frustrating, really wasteful.
And things wouldn't work together.
But then along came USB-C and it became like a universal standard.
So it wouldn't matter if a charger was made in Korea, for example.
That would work seamlessly with a laptop that was made in China or the USA or wherever.
So the grid standard, it's kind of doing the same thing.
It's that universal plug-and-play protocol for renewable energy.
And this means that clean power from any source, made by any company, from any country, can be safely integrated into any grid anywhere in the world.
And that's what this first global rulebook is about.
It allows all of these engineers and scientists working on these different projects, from different companies in different parts of the world to speak the same language.
Yeah, so I think it sort of makes sense that we have this standard now, simply because the amount of wind and solar power are feeding into the grids are growing.
So it sort of challenges the entire power systems, because you know, when we are thinking about our old power systems in the past, for example, when most of our power comes from coal or gas or water even,
It seems like it's a constant pump into the system.
But now when it comes to wind and solar, it's very difficult to predict.
You don't know when they're going to come.
You don't know how much are going to come into the system.
So it posed great challenges to, for example, we saw this massive blackouts in Europe this summer, simply because the change of weathers are challenging the grid.
And stability is important. basically core to any grid operating.
We need a stable grid so that you know factories won't just suddenly stop working and our devices and equipment can stay safe at homes.
So I think it's one step of you know, finally a technology and incorporating new energies into our grid system.
And that's why we need this standard in place.
Yeah for the fact that um nowadays new energy of course, globally we are chasing for that kind of a greener future and more and more new energy is becoming the power source of many areas and For the fact that new energy surpassed coal power here in China, becoming the largest power source in the system, and that with a cumulative install capacity reaching more than 14 billion kilowatts.
This accounts for about 42 of the total national install capacity in China.
That's the stats from Economic Daily.
The higher the share of renewable energy, the more rely on accurate simulation models to predict things.
Yeah, and like Fei-Fei said, what happens when strong winds suddenly hit?
What happens when clouds suddenly block the sun?
If you don't have a unified standard, then different manufacturers build their own models.
Different software uses different assumptions on how to handle different problems and then different countries.
They'll speak a different language, of course, but a different technical language too, and that can lead to inconsistent results and that can make it harder to ensure grid safety.
Imagine a wind turbine that was made in Denmark.
It might be used in a project in Brazil that's connected to a grid that's managed by engineers in Germany that's using software that was developed in the United States.
Well, if those players in that game, if you will, if they're all speaking a different technical language, then it wouldn't make things very simple.
But with this standard in place again to use that term, plug and play there's no need for any type of technical translation.
It's guaranteed to work no matter where it's developed, where it's made, in what part of the world.
You take it somewhere else and it'll apply there as well.
It just simplifies the whole process.
Now, that being said, how are they planning to implement this new standard?
Well, I think there are a very important term here is called dynamic simulation is a quite an important method for assessing the stability and safety of the power systems with a high share of renewable energy, like what we have here in China and a lot of countries in Europe.
And they rely on efficient and accurate mathematical models, meaning that you know engineers, while watching over what's happening on the grid, they need to sort of make the calculation and predict and sort of simulate what's going to happen, virtually on a different set of, based on the data that they collected.
So, when they are running this, when they have this standard, they will have, for example, manufacturers being able to update their models.
Wind turbines and solar panels.
Companies must provide grid connection models that follow this standard.
For example, grid operators who adopt this standard in their review process.
So when a new wind or solar project applies to connect to the grid, the operators will test their behavior, use this model and if the model passes the stability and safety checks, that means this project can get permission to connect to the grid.
And there are also simulation softwares that need to also integrate this standard, and also regulators also need to refer to this standard on a national level as well.
Yeah, right.
So if everybody follows that standard, then everybody's communicating in the same way and it just speeds up the whole process.
It makes it a lot more efficient and a lot safer too.
Besides that, what other things, what other strategies is China using to ensure energy security?
Actually, China is aggressively developing new power generation bases to shift away from fossil fuels and also enhance supply resilience.
And one example is this super new energy basis, because it is planning and constructing large scale wind and solar bases in desert, Gobi and arid regions known as Sha Ge Huan in Chinese these three areas.
So this initiative aims to achieve a total installed capacity of more than 455 million kilowatts by 2030.
That's about roughly enough to power about 260 million households for an entire year.
Wow, that's an ambitious project with a great outcome if they can achieve that.
The goal then of these bases, I guess, would be to strengthen the national energy security.
And also, you know, you're reducing your reliance on oil and gas, foreign or domestic.
By substituting electricity there.
Why, though, are we placing our hopes in those?
You mentioned the region.
Yeah.
Why are they building it there?
What's the point behind that?
This massive new energy infrastructure plan actually targets the vast, huge area.
And although these areas are characterized by a harsh climate and are sparsely populated, they are rich areas in solar and wind resources.
And this initiative aims to harness these resources to achieve several national goals.
That's where the energy is.
That's why they're building them there.
Yeah.
By increasing the proportion of new energy in the overall system.
The plan seeks to reduce energy high dependence on maybe oil and gas, as you mentioned, and build a secure, also efficient and clean low-carbon energy system.
And this includes promoting the substitution of electricity for oil and gas usage.
That's where the energy is, but there must be some challenges of putting bases there.
Yes, for example, you know, when it comes to shagahuan, when it comes to desert, gobi and arid regions, it also means their ecosystem can be very fragile.
So building large scale projects like solar farms and wind turbines can pose challenges to local ecosystems.
So that means when we are pushing ahead with these projects, we need to be also very careful when it comes to the biodiversity, the environment in general in the surrounding area.
And there are also coordination issues.
For example, building such massive projects is not the job, for example, of a power plant.
It also needs cooperation among power plants, among the great operators.
Also, they need energy storage systems ready.
They also need to have energy storage companies to get involved.
There are also, as I mentioned, biodiversity and environmental considerations.
They also need coordination among governments and also local residents.
And, you know, villagers also need to be considered.
So it's a very massive coordination effort. process that need to go into this as well.
They can build it next to the drone delivery drop-off points.
They can coordinate together.
Ambitious yes, but absolutely necessary, as the world depends more and more on the sun and the wind to get its energy from.
It only does make sense that the world coordinates and works together to come up with a plan on how to make those things work.
Those plants work as efficiently as they possibly can.
You're listening to Roundtable and coming up across China, the familiar heat of a coal stove is being replaced by the quiet efficiency of new technologies.
Thank you very much.
Carbon monoxide seeping from coal stoves, electrical fires sparked by overworked heaters and the health risks of smoky indoor air.
China's in the middle of one of the largest clean heating transformations in the world though, rapidly replacing coal with heat pumps, industrial waste heat and renewables.
So today we're going to talk about how to stay warm and safe As the temperatures plunge.
So when we talk about traditionally speaking, how would homes be heated here in China?
Well, winter heating in northern China in particular are mostly powered by coal in the past.
You know, loose coal, small coal-fired boilers, household coal stoves.
So about 83% of all heating area in northern China depended on coal.
There are other sources as well, like natural gas electricity, biomass meaning sometimes animal dunce together accounted for the only about 17, so that means in the past China needs a lot of coal about 400 million tons of standard coal and also with 200 million tons of loose coal, meaning they can only be able to burn low efficiency and scatter settings, especially in rural areas, and that means it pose a a lot of risks, especially health-wise, to residents.
Yeah.
Indoor coal burning, biomass burning, especially if the home is poorly ventilated.
And I'm guessing traditionally speaking homes would have been constructed with not so perfect ventilation systems, of course,
You'd have black carbon, organic carbon, carbon monoxide PM25, which is your fine particulate matter, excuse me, which is incredibly tiny, right.
It's 30 times smaller than human hair.
Really, really dangerous to bypass your nose and throat.
It can get lodged in your lungs and enter into your bloodstream.
And exposure to these things can cause a lot of serious health problems like respiratory illnesses and heart and lung disease, and even perhaps thousands of premature deaths as well.
So it's a problem that no question needs fixing.
And that's exactly what's happening.
China's clean heating push. is happening right now.
So this goes back to 2017?
Yes.
Back then, China launched a major national effort to promote clean heating in both urban and rural areas.
And the principle is matching the heating solution to local conditions rather than relying on a single technology.
So they have a broad mix of clean or cleaner options like natural gas heating, centralized gas boilers, gas-fired congeneration or household wall-hung gas boilers these kind of equipments that you can see on the wall.
You bought one of those recently, did you not?
I didn't.
For your shower, I thought?
Or was that a different thing?
Different topic, different day.
Yeah, that's another one.
I use those wall-hung gas boilers at my home for heating in Beijing.
And they work very well?
Yeah, yeah, they work very well.
So...
So yeah, it can be very common right now in many city homes in China currently.
Yeah, other than that, electric heating using electric boilers, radiant floor heating, electric heating cables or films and also heat pumps.
And many areas use off-peak electricity plus storage heating to ease grid pressure, because in some areas you can actually probably the electricity at midnight is cheaper.
So you can actually charge them at midnight and use the electricity at daytime.
Okay.
So then what are some of the technologies that are helping shape today's heating systems?
Well, one thing I find very interesting is industrial waste heat pipelines, meaning that there are heat delivered from industrial facilities to homes that, for example, there are Liaocheng 2 Jinan heat pipelines that provide large-scale, low-emission warmth.
And also when I went to Guizhou this year, I visited a sort of a waste power plant as well.
They are also building pipelines supplying heat to another I think another factory as well, because they burned a lot of waste and the heat can be utilized again.
So they are sort of sell this heat to another factory who use that.
So it's one of the quite innovative technologies.
Another one is about solar that in a lot of Western regions that we just talked about they have abundant solar energy projects.
And they are installing also, for example, rooftop solar powers, heat pumps.
And also they can also be sort of integrated into their microgrid as well.
So they are installing the solar powers both for heat and also power in these pretty deserted areas.
And using what would have been waste before into something that can be used to heat people's homes.
Clean heating is obviously a much safer and healthier option.
Clean heating technology offers a substantial list of improvements.
The heat pumps and the biomass networks, they eliminate that carbon monoxide risk entirely.
Doesn't it?
That means there's no combustion.
There's no CO whatsoever.
And that in itself is a major, major upgrade in terms of safety.
And it also reduces the risk of fires from coal stoves or faulty electric heaters as well.
All right.
Well, that will do it for today's roundtable.
Thank you so much for sharing your time with us today.
We certainly hope that you enjoyed the program.
I'm Steve for Yushan and Fei Fei.
I'll say thank you on their behalf as well.
And we ask you to come back and join us again next time.
