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Coal: Shifting from a basic energy source to an energy source that provides security and support. Author/Source: Modern Coal Chemical Industry. Date: 2022-10-21. Clicks: 67. Portugal abandons coal in favor of renewable energy. The United Nations calls on countries to turn to renewable energy in order to address the global climate crisis; Portugal is one of the first countries in the EU to abandon coal. Portugal will share its experiences and lessons in energy transition at the COP27 United Nations Climate Summit to be held in Egypt in November. The Pego coal power plant was the last coal-powered plant in Portugal, located 120 kilometers northeast of the capital, Lisbon. After operating for 30 years, it was officially shut down in November 2021, and its cooling towers have been out of use for nearly a year now. At the beginning of 2021, the Sines coal-fired power plant, located about 90 kilometers south of Lisbon, was announced to be shut down. Lisbon **abandoned coal entirely eight years earlier than expected.** A few EU member states have **given up on using coal as an energy source, and Portugal is one of them; Belgium and Sweden are also among them. The Russia-Ukraine conflict triggered an energy crisis, prompting Austria to abandon its plans to shut down coal-fired power plants. In mid-September, Portuguese Minister of the Environment Duarte Cordeiro said that Portugal would still stick to its previous decision to phase out coal energy. Pedro Nunes, an expert in renewable energy at the University of Lisbon and a policy officer at the environmental organization Zero*, said that Portugal is a microcosm of the whole of Europe. He pointed out that the greenhouse gases emitted in the past by two recently shut down coal-fired power plants accounted for about 20% of Portugal’s total emissions. **It is hoped that the development of green energy will continue to replace coal-based power generation; it is expected that by 2026, green energy will supply 80% of the energy needs, up from 40% in 2017. In 2021, renewables accounted for nearly 60% of electricity generation, but due to droughts that reduced hydroelectric power production, this figure dropped to 40% in 2022. On October 11, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) called on countries around the world to double the share of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2030, in order to prevent climate change from threatening global energy security. The World Meteorological Organization states that electricity production, as a major source of carbon emissions, not only exacerbates climate change but is also highly vulnerable to global warming. Portugal plans to increase its wind and solar power generation capacity; currently, the country ranks eighth in Europe in terms of wind power capacity ； Its solar power generation capacity ranks thirteenth. Nevertheless, Portugal remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels; according to Eurostat, they accounted for 71% of its energy mix in 2020. Núñez said that during the energy transition phase, this strategy initially relies on natural gas for power generation, and the pollution generated in this way is one-third less than that resulting from coal-based power generation. Portugal has been using natural gas combined cycle power plants; for example, the plant at the Pego site has been in operation since 2011. It was originally scheduled to be decommissioned in 2035, but now it is about to be retired. Pedro Almeida Fernandes said that this situation is not accidental. Portugal is **one of the first countries in Europe to phase out coal**, and it has long been preparing for an energy transition. Nevertheless, Pedro Clemente Nunes, an energy expert at the Lisbon University of Technology, said the country’s move away from coal is “poorly planned.” He pointed out that over the past year, Portugal has seen a significant increase in electricity imports from its neighbor Spain, while Spain continues to generate energy using coal. Image: Coal is an important fundamental energy source in our country, serving to support economic and social development as well as meet the energy needs of people’s daily lives. Since the * of the Party, China’s coal industry has accelerated its efforts in the field of clean and efficient utilization of coal, striving to shift from a \"black\" industry to a \"green\" one, and has taken firm steps forward in its transformation and development. In 2021, China’s raw coal production reached 4.13 billion tons. Coal accounted for 56% of the total energy consumption, remaining the primary energy source in the country. China’s energy demand continues to rise; its reliance on imported oil and gas is high, and renewable energy sources are unstable. The energy structure, which is dominated by coal, is unlikely to change fundamentally in the short term. With new breakthroughs in energy technology innovation, the coal industry still has development opportunities in areas such as green and intelligent mining, prevention and control of coal mine disasters, and clean and efficient utilization. In the future, China’s coal industry will continue to rely on technological progress to build a modern industrial system characterized by “closed material cycles, gradient utilization of energy, and harmony between the economy and the ecosystem”, thereby promoting the clean, efficient development and green, low-carbon utilization of coal. The coal industry is reducing its excess capacity in order to overcome difficulties. After a period of rapid growth during the \"golden decade,\" the development trend of China’s coal industry began to decline starting in 2012; market prices kept falling, and an increasing number of companies in this industry suffered losses. Since the * of the Party, guided by the new development philosophy, first, China’s coal industry has worked to reduce excess production capacity, leading to a continuous improvement in its layout and industrial structure. From the second half of 2012 to 2016, affected by factors such as a slowdown in economic growth and the adjustment of the energy structure, the imbalance between coal supply and demand became severe, and the coal industry experienced a “cold spell”. In February 2016, the State Council issued the \"Opinions on Reducing Excess Production Capacity in the Coal Industry to Achieve Sustainable Development,\" stipulating that over a period of 3 to 5 years starting from 2016, the coal industry should reduce its production capacity by about 500 million tons and undergo restructuring involving a reduction of another 500 million tons in production capacity. Corresponding support policies were also proposed. By the end of 2021, large coal mines with an annual production of over 1.2 million tons accounted for about 85% of the country’s total coal production, while the share of small coal mines with an annual production of less than 300,000 tons dropped to around 2%. Secondly, the level of mechanization and intelligence in coal mines has improved significantly, leading to a steady increase in production efficiency. Before 2016, China’s coal mines relied on traditional methods such as using people to pull ropes, measuring distances manually, and using stones for marking, which often led to deviations in hole locations and uneven blasting of rock layers. In recent years, China’s coal mines have been promoting intelligent coal mining and enhancing the level of coal mining equipment manufacturing. This has become a key direction for many coal enterprises in their transformation and upgrading as well as in improving production efficiency. Not only in open-pit mines, but intelligent technologies have also been “applied” deep underground—hundreds of meters below the surface. As a result, coal mining efficiency has steadily increased, and the situation regarding work safety has significantly improved. By the end of 2021, the mechanization level of coal mining in China’s large-scale coal enterprises had risen to 98.95%, an increase of about 17 percentage points compared to 2012, with 813 intelligent mining faces established across the country. Third, by pursuing a green and low-carbon development path, new progress has been made in the clean and efficient use of coal. Since the * of the Party, China’s coal industry has made continuous progress in achieving clean and efficient utilization, with coal-fired power generation and modern coal chemical industries showing particularly outstanding performance. Coal consumption for coal-fired power generation in China accounts for approximately 53% of total coal consumption. Promoting energy conservation and consumption reduction in coal-fired power units is an effective measure for the clean and green utilization of coal and for improving the atmospheric environment. Meanwhile, the development of the modern coal chemical industry has facilitated the upward shift of coal from the lower end to the higher end of the value chain, thereby expanding the scope for coal consumption. Modern coal chemical industry is evolving toward higher-end products, greater diversity, and lower carbon emissions. In 2021, China’s production capacity for coal-to-oil, coal (methanol)-to-olefins, coal-to-gas, and coal (syngas)-to-ethylene glycol was 9.31 million tons per year, 16.72 million tons per year, 6.125 billion cubic meters per year, and 6.75 million tons per year, respectively. The coal industry is accelerating its transformation and upgrading. As environmental protection imposes increasingly strict constraints on the development of this industry, pursuing green development has become the only option for it; in this context, goals related to carbon peak and carbon neutrality guide the direction of energy-consuming industries. However, over the next decade or even two decades, coal’s role as a primary energy source and its function as a backup energy source will not change, and the transformation and upgrading of the coal industry are still in progress. In 2021, **by proceeding based on practical realities and correcting the ad-hoc \"carbon reduction\" measures in some areas, it was emphasized that China should remain committed to its basic national condition of relying on coal as a primary energy source. Efforts were made to ensure the clean and efficient use of coal, increase the capacity to utilize new energy sources, and promote an optimal combination of coal and new energy sources, thereby providing reassurance to the coal industry. In 2022, the supply and demand in China’s coal market is expected to remain roughly balanced. In the long term, however, to achieve the \"dual carbon\" goals, it is inevitable to reduce the total amount of coal consumed as well as the carbon emissions associated with its use, which presents new opportunities as well as challenges for the coal industry. According to the China Coal Industry Association, by 2030, China’s coal consumption will reach its peak level and then enter a period of decline. It is expected that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the share of coal in the structure of primary energy consumption will continue to decline. Coal consumption will remain between 4 billion tons and 4.2 billion tons, while the overall volume of the coal market and its demand structure will remain relatively stable. With the advancement of adjustments in the coal industry structure, industrial concentration has increased significantly. A pattern of coordinated development among coal-related industries such as coal-based power generation, coal steel production, coking, building materials manufacturing, storage and transportation, and finance has begun to take shape. Innovative development models such as coordination between coal production and sales, as well as new industries (54.710, 2.71, 5.21%) and new business forms, have emerged, thereby enhancing the vitality of the coal industry’s economic development. Especially with the arrival of the peak in coal consumption during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, it is necessary to advance reforms in the coal industry thoroughly, leveraging digital technologies as a driving force and aiming for the intelligentization of coal mines in order to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of this industry. Moving forward, China’s coal industry and enterprises must actively take on the dual tasks of ensuring energy supply and facilitating green transformation. They need to uphold the bottom line of maintaining a stable and secure energy supply, promote the clean, efficient, and low-carbon use of coal as well as carbon sequestration processes. Efforts should be made to transform coal from a basic energy source into one that serves to ensure and support energy supply, thereby contributing to advancing the energy revolution, building a strong energy nation, and achieving the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality on schedule.