An integrated micro-energy grid demonstration project was completed and put into operation on Aug 17 in Guangzhou of South China's Guangdong Province.
It is the first China-Finland energy cooperation demonstration project in operation and is intended to model a smart and low-carbon industrial park in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with combined supply of cooling, heating and power.
One of the first China-Finland energy cooperation demonstration projects approved by the National Energy Administration in January 2019, the project is expected to improve energy utilization and efficiency and boost low-carbon development of the new technology, new mode and new business pattern.
Staff members of China Southern Power Grid's Guangzhou subsidiary inspect the solar power heat collection system of the integrated micro-energy grid demonstration project in Guangzhou. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The project includes three fields: the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), a solar power heat collection system and a bed rock energy storage system. So far, a SOFC with capacity of 60 kilowatts has been built, the largest of its kind in China, realizing highly-efficient application of solar power collection and cross-season energy storage.
It's worth noting that the 60-kW SOFC improves the electrical efficiency of the traditional coal-fired generator unit by 30 percent.
Yang Bo, head of the Hydrogen Energy Research Center of the company, explained that the SOFC system can select any of hydrogen, natural gas or methane as the fuel, which improves the reliability of power supply in response to extreme weather and emergencies.
He added that the application of the fuel cell in the distributed energy supply system can also efficiently contribute to low-carbon energy transformation in the Greater Bay Area.
The project also includes an internationally-leading highly-efficient solar power heat collection system, which is expected to make the most use of the solar power with a thermal conversion efficiency of 52 percent.
With attention to the geological features, the project was built as China's first cross-season bed rock energy storage system based on the underground silt seam. Yang said that the energy can be used for cooling in summer and stored in spring and autumn for winter use. The system is designed to be able to store 300 megawatt-hours of power annually.
The highly-efficient and coordinated use of multiple kinds of energies is another highlight of the project. China Southern Power Grid (CSG)'s subsidiary in Guangzhou designed a smart and integrated solution that improves the system's comprehensive efficiency to more than 80 percent.
The project effectively reduces fossil energy consumption in the park with highly-efficient use of clean energy and realizes the best performance in energy and economical efficiency via multi-energy complementary and smart energy management systems.
In response to the summer days with strong solar radiation, high temperature and long illumination time in South China, CSG's Guangzhou subsidiary developed a photo-thermal innovative application scenario, collecting heat power to generate cool air through lithium bromide refrigerating machinery.
It is anticipated that if 10 percent of the air conditioning load in Guangdong can be replaced by the solar power heat collection system about 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions can be eliminated annually.
In addition to the lithium bromide refrigerator machine, the park is also equipped with a photovoltaic power generation system, a battery energy storage system and two-way electric-car charging piles, achieving multi-energy inter-connectivity and gradient utilization and meeting diversified energy demands of users in the industrial park.
According to Wang Ke, head of the Planning and Development Department of CSG's Guangzhou subsidiary, the park can avoid emissions of 200 tons of carbon dioxide annually based on the multi-energy utilization system.
Wang added that the integrated micro-energy grid demonstration project has provided a reproducible and transferable technical solution and commercial application mode of highly-efficient use of renewable energy and comprehensive energy optimization for smart parks that can be promoted in hotels, hospitals, other industrial parks and islands.
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)