European, Chinese experts optimistic about global energy interconnection prospects

Many Chinese and European experts shared the same view that it makes sense to build a global energy interconnection and that it can be achieved at China-EU Workshop on Global Energy Interconnection, which kicked off in Berlin on Thursday.

Liu Zhenya, chairman of the State Grid Corporation of China, introduced the idea of building a comprehensive global energy interconnection on the workshop.

He said that speeding up the development and utilization of clean energy is the fundamental way to deal with resource constraints, environmental pollution, climate change and other challenges, and in order to achieve a sustainable supply of clean energy, a global platform must be built for the optimal allocation of energy, which means global energy interconnection.

In Europe, electricity market is already growing together. Electricity is traded across national boundaries and new transmission lines within Europe are planned and constructed, said Benno Bunse, CEO of Germany Trade and Invest, in an interview with Xinhua.

He explained, the more the countries focus on renewable energy, the greater the importance of regional or even global networking will be, since this variation in electricity production can be better complemented.

In his view, Europe and China also have great potential for cooperation in building a global energy interconnection.

China has just expanded solar and wind capacity in recent years in the west of the country with enormous speed, he said, however, as the biggest users of the electricity are in the economic centers in the east of the country, amounts of electricity had to be transported over long distances.

"China has just gained a lot of experience in the field of transfer technology, from which we can benefit greatly in Europe and Germany," Bunse said, adding that Germany and Europe, however, have gained great experience in the integration of large amounts of solar and wind power from which China can certainly benefit.

Kai Strunz, head of department of energy networks and integration of renewable energy at Technical University of Berlin, introduced the conception of Eurasian interconnection as well as the e-Highway 2050 project, funded by the European Commission, which aims to build a reliable supply of clean energy network within Europe.

"I think global energy interconnection is a very useful concept. One can, as in case of e-Highway 2050, analyze the costs and benefits in the integration of renewable energies," he said.

The technologies for the implementation of global energy interconnection are already widely available and can be implemented gradually, he added.

More than 70 experts from China and Europe conducted in-depth exchanges of views on building global energy interconnection on the two-day workshop. Endit