Guidelines for Zero-Carbon Park Construction Arrive

Zero-Carbon Park Construction Welcomes Development Roadmap

 

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Notice on the Development of Zero-Carbon Park Construction" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), outlining a clear development roadmap for zero-carbon park construction.

 

The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference called for the "establishment of a batch of zero-carbon parks," and the 2025 Government Work Report reiterated this deployment. Pan Xiaohai, member of the Party Committee and vice general manager of China International Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd., stated that "the construction of zero-carbon parks is a new deployment and requirement of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council for the 'dual carbon' work. It is of great significance for enriching channels for renewable energy utilization and consumption, promoting the green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading of industries, and stimulating institutional and technological innovation. It also has a positive promoting effect on accelerating the comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation of economic and social development and achieving the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality."

 

 

Eight Key Tasks to be Coordinated and Promoted

 

Industrial parks are important platforms for industrial economic development and job creation, but they are also major sources of energy consumption and carbon emissions. A zero-carbon park refers to a park where, through planning, design, technology, and management, carbon dioxide emissions from production and living activities within the park are reduced to near-zero levels, and it has the conditions to further achieve net-zero.

 

" Currently, China has entered a critical period for achieving its carbon peaking target and accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. Although the 'dual carbon' work has made positive progress and achieved significant results in the past five years, it also faces challenges such as increasing pressure on renewable energy consumption, difficulties in deep decarbonization of high-energy-consuming industries, and limitations in the promotion and application of low-carbon, zero-carbon, and negative-carbon technologies. It urgently needs to achieve a breakthrough through policy innovation, technological innovation, and model innovation." A relevant official from the National Development and Reform Commission stated.

 

Kang Yanbing, deputy director of the National Energy Conservation Center, stated that under the background of the 'dual carbon' goals, creating a batch of zero-carbon parks and carrying out path model innovation, technological innovation, and policy mechanism innovation for park energy use system transformation, and exploring the transformation path of park carbon reduction and efficiency improvement, is of great significance for promoting the low-carbon and zero-carbon transformation of various parks nationwide and promoting the green, low-carbon, and high-quality development of parks.

 

June 30, workers work at the Fuxing 220-kilovolt substation in Xiong'an New Area (drone photo). According to the State Grid Hebei Construction Company, the substation's design incorporates eight green construction solutions, including sponge city, carbon footprint management, and energy restructuring. It uses 15 low-carbon technologies, including intelligent systems, water circulation systems, and zero-carbon monitoring systems, to achieve near-zero carbon emissions throughout its life cycle. Xinhua News Agency photo

 

" Constructing zero-carbon parks is highly innovative work that requires systematic planning and coordinated promotion. The official introduced that the Notice proposes eight key tasks:

 

First, accelerate the transformation of the park's energy structure, Develop green electricity direct connection, on-site renewable energy access to incremental distribution networks, and other green electricity direct supply models according to local conditions, and promote the clean and low-carbon transformation of park heating systems.

 

Second, vigorously promote energy conservation and carbon reduction in parks, Promote the establishment of sound energy consumption and carbon emission management systems in parks, implement energy conservation and carbon reduction transformation and energy equipment upgrades, and encourage enterprises to build factories with ultimate energy efficiency and zero-carbon factories.

 

Third, adjust and optimize the industrial structure of parks, Encourage parks to accelerate the optimization and adjustment of their industrial structure, develop low-energy-consuming, low-pollution, and high-value-added emerging industries, explore the "green-to-green" model, and support the orderly transfer and aggregation of high-energy-consuming industries.

 

Fourth, strengthen resource conservation and intensive use in parks, Improve the level of resource intensive utilization, improve the park's waste recycling network, and strengthen the resource utilization of various types of waste.

 

Fifth, improve and upgrade park infrastructure, Systematically promote the construction and transformation of infrastructure such as electricity, heat, gas, hydrogen energy, water supply and drainage, and pollution control, and improve green building and green transportation infrastructure in parks.

 

Sixth, strengthen the application of advanced and applicable technologies, Support parks in exploring mechanisms for the deep integration of green and low-carbon technology research and development and industrial development, and create demonstration application scenarios around advanced and applicable low-carbon, zero-carbon, and negative-carbon technologies.

 

Seventh, enhance the park's energy and carbon management capabilities, Construct park energy and carbon management platforms, and strengthen the monitoring, prediction, and allocation capabilities of energy consumption loads.

 

Eighth, support parks in strengthening reform and innovation, Support various entities such as governments, parks, park enterprises, power grid enterprises, and comprehensive energy service providers to participate in the construction of zero-carbon parks, and explore new models and mechanisms.

 

Innovatively Proposes Core Evaluation Indicators

 

"Previously, some regions and industry departments have conducted some beneficial explorations in the construction of zero-carbon parks, but overall, there is still a lack of unified standards that are widely recognized. The issuance of the Notice fills this gap and provides unified and clear technical guidance for the construction of zero-carbon parks." Pan Xiaohai stated.

 

Regarding the conditions required for the construction of zero-carbon parks, the Notice clarifies four basic conditions: First, The construction entity is a provincial-level or above development zone, and depending on the situation, it can be expanded to newly constructed provincial-level emerging industrial parks or high-tech parks in recent years; Second, The construction scope can be the entire park or a "park within a park" with clearly defined boundaries; Third, The park should have a certain foundation in energy consumption and carbon emission statistics, accounting, measurement, and monitoring; Fourth, The park should not have experienced any major safety, environmental accidents, or other adverse social impacts in the past 3 years.

 

China has a large number of parks, and the size, industrial structure, and energy consumption characteristics of various parks vary greatly, making it difficult to unify the "zero-carbon/near-zero-carbon" standards. The Notice innovatively proposes "unit energy consumption carbon emissions" (i.e., the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by various energy sources per ton of standard coal consumed in the park) as a core indicator for evaluating zero-carbon parks, guiding parks to achieve near-zero carbon emissions through efforts while ensuring enterprise development and energy consumption.

 

On June 30, workers inspected equipment at the Fuxing 220-kilovolt substation in Xiong'an New Area before it was put into operation. Xinhua News Agency photo

 

In addition to core indicators, the Notice also sets five guiding indicators: the proportion of clean energy consumption, unit energy consumption of products from park enterprises, the comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste, the comprehensive utilization rate of waste heat, waste cold and waste pressure, and the reuse rate of industrial water. Requirements are put forward from aspects such as energy structure, circular economy, and resource conservation.

 

Regarding how the state will support the construction of zero-carbon parks, the Notice proposes three aspects: First, Financial support. Existing funding channels will be used comprehensively to support the construction of zero-carbon parks. Various regions are encouraged to provide financial support for the construction of zero-carbon parks, and policy banks are encouraged to provide medium- and long-term credit support for qualified projects. At the same time, qualified enterprises are supported in issuing bonds for the construction of zero-carbon parks. Second, Service support. Support the park to introduce external talents, technologies, and professional institutions through multiple channels to serve enterprises in energy-saving and emission-reduction transformation, carbon emission accounting and management, and product carbon footprint certification. Finally, Resource support. Strengthen the guarantee of energy elements, innovate the energy-saving review and carbon emission evaluation model for fixed asset investment projects within the zero-carbon park, and explore the implementation of regional approval or project filing. Strengthen the guarantee of land and sea use elements for newly built parks, new energy power sources, and power supply facilities.

 

"At the national level, the National Development and Reform Commission will comprehensively promote the construction of zero-carbon parks. Following the overall arrangement of 'planning a batch, constructing a batch, and operating a batch', a list of the first batch of national-level zero-carbon parks will be determined, and active support will be provided in terms of pilot exploration, project construction, and funding arrangements." said a relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission.

 

New path for high-level consumption of new energy

 

Experts believe that, Many tasks in the Notice will promote the development of renewable energy, including photovoltaics. For example, the Notice proposes to "accelerate the transformation of the park's energy structure", including strengthening the development and utilization of renewable energy in and around the park, supporting the matching and connection of the park with surrounding non-fossil energy power generation resources, scientifically configuring energy storage and other regulatory resources, developing green electricity direct connection, and new energy nearby access to incremental distribution networks and other green electricity direct supply models in a way that suits local conditions, encouraging participation in green certificate and green electricity trading, and exploring hydrogen-electricity coupling development and utilization models, etc.

 

Therefore, experts generally believe that, The core of zero-carbon parks is to build an energy system based primarily on renewable energy.

 

"The construction of zero-carbon parks is an important testing ground for accelerating the construction of a new energy system." Li Zhong, deputy director and researcher of the National Development and Reform Commission's Energy Research Institute, believes that the energy supply of zero-carbon parks should mainly be met by non-fossil energy. Through the integrated design and construction of source-grid-load-storage, green electricity direct connection and other models, the intelligent and efficient docking of energy supply and demand can be realized. The development of zero-carbon park models will significantly increase the scale and proportion of on-site consumption of renewable energy, alleviate the burden of grid consumption and the constraints of outbound channels, and effectively promote the development of renewable energy with greater force in areas with conditions, thereby accelerating the increase in the proportion of renewable energy consumption and accelerating the orderly replacement of new and old energy.

 

This is a photo taken on November 27, 2024, showing photovoltaic power generation panels on the roof of a factory building in a company in the equipment manufacturing industrial park in Luancheng District, Shijiazhuang City (drone photo). Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Shiyao

 

According to estimates from relevant research institutions, the technically exploitable amount of photovoltaic power generation and onshore wind power resources in China is as high as 400 billion kilowatts and 100 billion kilowatts, respectively. In 2021, China launched the construction of "Shagohuang" bases, but there is still great room for growth in wind and photovoltaic installations. From the demand side, China's installed capacity of new energy power generation has reached 1.65 billion kilowatts, accounting for 46% of the total installed capacity. Further improving the consumption level of new energy has become a top priority in "dual carbon" work.

 

"Whether from the perspective of strengthening energy supply security or ensuring the achievement of carbon peak targets, it is necessary to further increase the development of renewable energy and improve the consumption level." Kang Yanbing said that on the basis of solidly advancing the planned and constructed large bases and outbound channels, encouraging areas with conditions to actively expand the incremental space for new energy development, and relying on zero-carbon parks to achieve high-proportion renewable energy consumption nearby and on-site, will help to resolve the bottleneck constraints of outbound channels, improve the consumption proportion of renewable energy, and accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of energy.

 

(China Development and Reform News Agency reporter Zhen Jingyi)

 

Grasping the "time, degree, and effectiveness" of zero-carbon park construction

 

The release of the "Notice on the Construction of Zero-Carbon Parks" injects strong impetus into the construction of zero-carbon parks with innovative policies and pragmatic measures, and is expected to set off a new wave of green development nationwide. The Notice clearly supports areas with conditions to take the lead in building a batch of zero-carbon parks and to promote the low-carbon and zero-carbon transformation of various parks in a planned and step-by-step manner. This also reminds us that the construction of zero-carbon parks should be timely, moderate, and effective.

 

Grasping the "time" of zero-carbon park construction. Currently, China has entered a critical period for achieving its carbon peak target and accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. At the same time, global green and low-carbon development competition and cooperation are becoming increasingly complex. The construction of zero-carbon parks is a long-term strategic task that runs through the entire process of China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. It must be combined with the characteristics of different stages and different regions, and we must adhere to persistent efforts and long-term commitment.

 

Grasping the "degree" of zero-carbon park construction. The construction of zero-carbon parks is highly innovative work, involving a wide range of areas and a long construction cycle. It is necessary to take a long-term perspective and plan scientifically. In the process of promotion, it is necessary to coordinate the relationship between development, emission reduction, and safety, and avoid haste or insufficient efforts.

 

Grasping the "effectiveness" of zero-carbon park construction. The construction of zero-carbon parks requires comprehensive efforts in terms of institutional mechanisms, policy support, and resource allocation. Objectively, it requires the joint efforts of governments, parks, and enterprises to achieve the expected results. At the same time, although China is richly endowed with renewable energy resources, the distribution is uneven. Various regions need to continue to expand the scale of renewable energy development, and further improve the allocation efficiency and utilization efficiency of renewable energy among industries and enterprises. This puts higher demands on the synergistic efforts and integrated promotion of zero-carbon park construction.