Photo taken on Dec 20, 2018 shows the first phase project of Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Taishan, south China's Guangdong Province.Photo:Xinhua

 South China's Guangdong Province, a major manufacturing hub, released its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for energy on Wednesday, vowing to promote the development of clean energy while ensuring energy security.

According to the plan released by the provincial government, Guangdong will develop the nuclear energy industry, with new nuclear power industrial parks to be built in Yangjiang and other places.

Advanced fuel research centers, natural uranium storage facilities, supporting projects for nuclear power environmental protection and other projects are also part of the five-year plan.

Guangdong will also develop the hydrogen energy industry. It will expand the hydrogen application market through multiple channels, focus on research and development of core hydrogen technologies and advanced equipment manufacturing, and accelerate the development of the whole industrial chain of hydrogen production, storage, processing and transportation, fuel cell reactors, key components and power system integration.

Guangdong's energy supply is short of primary resources such as coal, oil and gas, according to the provincial government.

Water energy resources have been basically developed, while wind power, photovoltaic and other renewable energy sources have not been developed and utilized on a large scale. 

Therefore, Guangdong aims to improve the cleanliness and efficiency of its energy consumption. 

The energy consumption will continue to become more green and low-carbon, and it is estimated that the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption will reach 32 percent by 2025. Natural gas consumption is expected to reach more than 48 billion cubic meters by 2025.

The province also aims to limit its energy consumption to 480 million tons of standard coal by 2035.

Guangdong will strictly curb coal consumption from 2021-25, since the proportion of coal consumption in Guangdong is 27 percent higher than the world average, while the proportion of natural gas consumption is 24 percent lower than the world average.

Thermal power generation accounted for 75.7 percent of Guangdong's total energy generation in 2021, which is higher than the national level of 71.13 percent, according to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Coal-fueled electricity is still a major source of power generation in China, but the country is currently on the way to achieving its goal of peak carbon by 2030, and then reaching carbon neutrality by 2060. 

To ensure energy supply and security, the operation management department of the People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, designed and issued a special product for energy supply guarantee and rediscount, providing the first batch of bill financing support worth 890 million yuan ($139.8 million) to 10 thermal power enterprises, the bank said on Wednesday.

The financing support was among efforts to smooth the financial integration of the upstream and downstream of the power supply chain. Since 2021, supply and demand for thermal coal in China has been tight, causing financial pressure in the upstream and downstream of the power supply chain, according to the PBC.

In the next step, the central bank will provide strong financial guarantees and support for China's energy transformation.

While ensuring the supply of coal-powered electricity, China is also making efforts to develop clean energy.

As a result, China has built more than 250 hydrogen refueling stations, accounting for about 40 percent of the world's total and ranking first in the world in terms of the number of hydrogen refueling stations, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday, citing an official from the National Energy Administration.