With the rapid development of the global economy, energy demand is increasing day by day. The excessive use of traditional fossil energy (coal, oil, natural gas) not only leads to the gradual depletion of energy reserves, but also triggers a series of serious environmental problems such as global warming and environmental pollution. Solving the energy crisis and realizing green energy transformation have become the common goals of countries around the world — and the development of new energy technology is the key to achieving this goal, providing important support for humans to stride towards a green future.

New energy refers to various forms of energy other than traditional energy, mainly including solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, nuclear energy, biomass energy, geothermal energy, etc. Its core advantages are cleanliness, renewability and low carbon environmental protection, which can effectively reduce pollutant emissions and alleviate the pressure of global warming. Among them, solar energy and wind energy are the most mature and widely used new energy forms at present. Solar energy utilization is mainly divided into photovoltaic power generation and solar thermal power generation. Photovoltaic power generation converts solar energy into electrical energy through solar panels, which has the advantages of flexible installation and simple maintenance, and is widely used in families, enterprises and large-scale photovoltaic power stations; solar thermal power generation collects solar energy to heat working fluid to generate steam, driving steam turbines to generate electricity, which can achieve stable power supply and make up for the intermittent shortcoming of photovoltaic power generation.

Wind energy utilization is mainly divided into onshore wind power and offshore wind power. Onshore wind power has mature technology and low cost, and has been widely deployed around the world; offshore wind power has abundant resources and stable wind speed, not limited by land terrain, and is an important direction for future wind power development. China’s new energy industry has developed rapidly and has become the country with the largest new energy installed capacity in the world. The scale and technical level of the photovoltaic and wind power industries are among the world’s leading. It can not only meet domestic energy demand, but also be exported to all parts of the world, contributing Chinese strength to the global green energy transformation.

In addition to solar energy and wind energy, nuclear energy is also an important clean new energy. Nuclear energy generates energy through nuclear reactions, which has the advantages of high energy density, low carbon emissions and stable power supply. It can effectively make up for the intermittent shortage of renewable energy and provide stable base load for the power grid. At present, many countries around the world have laid out the nuclear power industry, and China’s nuclear power technology has also made continuous breakthroughs. The completion and commissioning of the “Hualong One” nuclear power plant marks that China’s nuclear power technology has reached the world’s advanced level, with the ability of independent design, construction and operation.

The development of new energy technology also faces some challenges. Renewable energy (solar energy, wind energy) has the characteristics of intermittency and volatility, which requires supporting energy storage technology to realize energy storage and dispatch and ensure stable power supply of the power grid; the development of the new energy industry requires a lot of initial investment, high technology research and development costs, and the economy of some new energy technologies still needs to be improved; in addition, the construction of new energy infrastructure and the transformation and upgrading of the power grid also restrict the popularization and application of new energy.

In the future, the development of new energy technology will move towards the direction of “more efficient, more economical and more stable”. Energy storage technology will continue to break through, and the optimization of lithium battery, hydrogen energy storage and other technologies will effectively solve the intermittent problem of renewable energy; the research and development of new energy technology will continue to exert efforts to improve the utilization efficiency of solar energy, wind energy, nuclear energy and other energy sources and reduce costs; new energy and traditional energy will achieve coordinated development, building a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system. It is believed that with the promotion of new energy technology, human beings will eventually solve the energy crisis and stride towards a green, low-carbon and sustainable future.