(87c) Low Carbon Hybrid Energy System: A Possible Solution to China's Future Low Carbon Economy

China’s coal dominated energy structure, along with growing energy demand and high pressure for CO₂ emission reduction, poses great challenges for China’s future energy structure development. Thus, a hybrid energy system was proposed as a possible solution to utilize China’s high carbon energy resources in a green and low carbon way. High carbon energy resources such as coal could be coupled with low carbon energy resources like nuclear energy and renewable energies by the effective integration between materials, energy and information.   

In this case, both energy and carbon efficiencies could be highly improved with a reduction of CO₂ emission, and at the same time CO₂ could be used as a feedstock. As a result, hybrid energy system is expected to be a strategic solution to China’s future energy structure development. This study addresses this topic by investigating the technical and economic feasibility of different hybrid energy systems.

Based on the above consideration, nuclear-assisted coal-based energy system and wind-assisted coal-based energy system were constructed to utilize the nuclear energy in China’s coast area and wind energy in Inner Mongonia, respectively. The results obtained in this study demonstrated the economic and environmental superiority of different hybrid energy systems.

Furthermore, the results clearly indicated that hybrid energy system is, in general, a feasible and preferable alternative solution to China’s future energy supply. The research methodology and procedure developed in this project can be used to investigate and identify the most viable hybrid energy system based on China’s special energy resource endowment and economic circumstances.