en.Wedoany.com Reported - Recently, the Strategic Seminar on Clean and Efficient Utilization of Coal Under New Circumstances was held in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. The seminar was hosted by China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy) and co-organized by Huairou Laboratory. Leaders from the National Energy Administration, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and CHN Energy, along with relevant officials from the China Coal Industry Association, the China Electricity Council, the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering, and the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, as well as over a hundred experts and academicians, attended the event.
China's energy resource endowment is characterized by being rich in coal, poor in oil, and low in gas, making it difficult to fundamentally change the coal-dominated energy structure in the short term. In 2025, China's total energy consumption reached 6.17 billion tons of standard coal, with coal consumption accounting for 51.4% of the total. Currently, facing the uncertainty of drastic changes in the international environment, the accelerated establishment of a dual control system for total carbon emissions and carbon intensity, and the rapid iteration of artificial intelligence technology reshaping various industries, the coal industry is confronted with a series of challenges that urgently need to be addressed regarding its transformation, upgrading, and green, low-carbon development path.
During the seminar, six academicians and experts delivered keynote reports on topics including green coal development, new-type power systems and next-generation coal-fired power generation, frontier technologies in green chemical engineering, the full industrial chain of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), AI empowering the coal industry, and near-zero carbon emission coal-fired power generation. Gu Dazhao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, systematically analyzed multiple challenges facing China's green coal development, such as high geographical concentration, water scarcity and ecological fragility, concentration of water-intensive industries, and rigid constraints from ecological and environmental protection policies. Liu Jizhen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that the essential characteristic of a new-type power system is its ability to adapt to the features of new energy sources, requiring phased and step-by-step implementation, with total society-wide electricity consumption expected to exceed 13 trillion kWh by 2030. Jiang Peixue, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that CCUS is the only technological pathway for achieving net-zero emissions from fossil energy and serves as a fallback guarantee technology for achieving carbon neutrality.
As of the end of May 2026, the total installed power generation capacity nationwide has exceeded the 4 billion kilowatt mark. Professor Yao Qiang from Tsinghua University stated in his report that the development of AI technology offers infinite possibilities for achieving clean and efficient utilization of coal and creating new momentum engines for the coal-based industry, calling for vigorous promotion of deep and effective integration of "AI + Energy."
