"Sha Ge Huang" attracts "Golden Phoenix" - Inner Mongolia's New Energy Investment Heat Observation, "Scenery" is Unique Here

Author: Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Yu Changhong, Zhang Lina, An Lumeng

The natural appearance of the desert and Gobi in Inner Mongolia is characterized by a vast expanse of yellow sand, barren grass, and a lack of human habitation. With the rise of the new energy industry, the once desolate land is now becoming bustling and bustling, with top companies with sharp noses flocking in and investing billions of yuan to build new energy; Equipment manufacturing enterprises, financial institutions, and research institutes are also flocking to seek opportunities for funding and technology. The desert and Gobi are becoming a hot new energy development treasure trove

In this regard, Inner Mongolia has a clear direction, a favorable path, and a promising future. It has great potential and prospects.

An energy revolution has brought about a new development track. What path has Inner Mongolia explored, what achievements have it made, and what wisdom will it contribute? Our reporter conducted on-site visits.

New investment fever, the first driving force for growth

In the depths of the boundless desert, photovoltaic panels are set up in rows and connected into sheets, shimmering under the light, like a blue ocean growing on the vast yellow sand. On the vast grassland, wind turbines stand tall and towering, with nearly 100 meter long blades roaring and rotating, creating a spectacular sight on the grassland.

Shuttling through the land of Inner Mongolia, many people will be amazed by such a magnificent scenery. Under the "dual carbon" goal, China is experiencing an energy revolution, and new energy is entering the historical stage and becoming a new protagonist in the energy field. As an important energy base of the country, Inner Mongolia has become the forefront of new energy development.

The largest photovoltaic desertification control project in China, the largest wind power project in the world, the world's first hydrogen production project with a capacity of tens of thousands of tons, and the world's largest "Shagehuang" wind and photovoltaic base... With an investment of several billion yuan to nearly 100 billion yuan, Inner Mongolia is continuously breaking the record for new energy development scale. According to the data from the Energy Bureau of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the entire autonomous region will complete a new energy investment of 300 billion yuan in 2023, nearly one-fifth of the national total. The scale of new energy under construction and planned construction will exceed 150 million kilowatts, accounting for about one-third of the national total. Among them, the construction of four large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases with a total scale of 48 million kilowatts in the Kubuqi, Ulanbuhe, Tengger, and Badain Jilin desert areas has been fully launched.

While a large number of national and world-class new energy projects have been implemented, Inner Mongolia's new energy equipment manufacturing industry is also advancing together. In the old industrial city of Baotou, the photovoltaic silicon industry has rapidly gained momentum. In just a few years, it has attracted more than 40 photovoltaic enterprises such as Xinxin, Tongwei, Daquan, and Tebian to settle down, becoming the city with the largest production capacity of polycrystalline silicon materials and single crystal rod slicing in the country, and striving to build a "world green silicon capital". As a national demonstration zone for undertaking industrial transfer, wind power equipment manufacturing in Tongliao City has emerged as a new force. Currently, 5 wind power complete machine and spare parts enterprises have settled in, gradually building a complete wind power equipment manufacturing industry chain. Ordos, a city with strong energy, vigorously cultivates the wind and solar hydrogen storage industry chain, using green electricity to produce green hydrogen, and exchanging wind and solar energy for coal. For example, Baofeng Energy has initiated the construction of the world's first green hydrogen to replace coal for hydrogen production to produce olefins project, and Vision Group has built the world's first zero carbon industrial park in Ordos, and a new industrial ecology is being nurtured.

This year, the equipment manufacturing investment inspection and signing activities in the autonomous region were particularly intensive. In mid July, the 2023 China Industrial Transfer and Development Matchmaking Event was held, with 1600 people from government, enterprises, cooperation, research and other fields gathered to warmly discuss the industrial advantages and development prospects of Inner Mongolia. About 160 large projects with a total amount of over 450 billion yuan were signed on site. Recently, 45 multinational companies such as French Electric, Michelin, and Air Products have entered Inner Mongolia. Du Wen, CEO of French Electric Youneng Investment Co., Ltd., is particularly impressed by Inner Mongolia's new energy, and "we are very interested in cooperating in the field of new energy.".

"Under the background of 'dual carbon', Inner Mongolia seizes opportunities and makes rapid progress in the development of new energy. Currently, it is ushering in a new round of intensive and surging investment boom," said Gong Mingzhu, Director of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission. Data shows that in the first half of this year, fixed assets investment in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region increased by 34.5% year on year, 30.7 percentage points higher than the national average, ranking the second in China and the highest in the northwest; Among them, new energy investment has shown a strong and rapid growth momentum, with a year-on-year increase of 114%, driving the overall investment growth rate by 24.8 percentage points, becoming the first driving force for economic growth in the entire region.

New attraction, a "two-way journey"

What is the magic behind Inner Mongolia's massive investment boom?

"There is scenery above our heads, coal below our feet, and the power grid in our hands." This is the "magic ball" of Inner Mongolia's energy industry development defined by Sun Shaocheng, Secretary of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Party Committee. The so-called "having scenery above the head" refers to having over half of the country's wind energy resources and over one-fifth of its solar energy resources. The so-called coal under our feet refers to the total installed capacity of coal-fired power exceeding 100 million kilowatts, ranking second in the country. It can fully utilize the regulation capacity of thermal power to support the large-scale and high proportion use of new energy. The so-called having a power grid in hand refers to having an independent Mengxi power grid, which can take the lead in the construction of a new type of power system with new energy as the main body, and explore the path for the national energy green revolution.

The answer given by entrepreneurs who come to invest is "the rich scenic resources, combined with vast development areas.". Wind and solar power generation has a low energy density and requires a large amount of land. Inner Mongolia has vast deserts, Gobi, and wastelands, making it suitable for building centralized photovoltaic power stations and wind farms, which can be exchanged for energy through space. According to calculations, the exploitable amount of Inner Mongolia's wind and solar resources technology reaches 10.8 billion kilowatts, equivalent to 480 Three Gorges power stations, which is four times the current total installed capacity of power generation in the country. "Inner Mongolia is one of the regions with the best new energy resources endowment in China. Huaneng North has realized the transformation from thermal power to green energy by taking advantage of the development of energy in Inner Mongolia," said Chen Binghua, chairman of Huaneng North. Three Gorges Energy Company regards Inner Mongolia as a strategic region and has successively built multiple innovative "first set" projects in the Kubuqi Desert, including photovoltaic desertification control, "Shage Desert" new energy base, Ulanqab "source network load storage", and Narisson photovoltaic hydrogen production, with a total installed capacity of over 20 million kilowatts. "During the 14th Five Year Plan period, we will build another 'Three Gorges Dam' in Inner Mongolia," said Zhang Long, General Manager of Three Gorges Energy Company.

The favorable business environment and promising development prospects have given entrepreneurs the confidence to invest effectively. Inner Mongolia regards optimizing the business environment as a top priority and strives to combine project layout with industrial support and factor guarantee, in order to achieve more high-quality enterprises settling down and excellent project landing. Focusing on the world's top 500, China's top 500, private top 500, and manufacturing top 500, from autonomous regions to league cities and counties, leaders at all levels take the lead in attracting investment, attracting projects and enterprises, and holding investment signing meetings every three to five days. "Only by doing a good job in the second half of the article can investors not only be willing to come, but also stay and develop well." Wu Yun, the leader of Ejin Horo Banner, introduced that the local government has fully supported enterprises to take root and develop from aspects such as "nanny style" services, creating standard land, building factories on behalf of others, and injecting development funds, attracting leading enterprises such as Yuanjing, Longji, and SAIC to settle down. Darhanmao Ming'an United Banner is a relatively remote county in Inner Mongolia, and in the past, recruiting a project required a lot of effort. Flag leader Shi Zhongqin said that in the past two years, large enterprises such as Three Gorges, Huadian, and Tianrun have actively invested in and constructed new energy projects. Currently, the scale of new energy construction has reached 4.49 million kilowatts, and the installed capacity of new energy is expected to exceed 15 million kilowatts by 2025. "As an extroverted and technology-based enterprise, I am always asked 'why are you going to Inner Mongolia?'" Hu Jiazheng, Deputy General Manager of Yuanjing North Technology Co., Ltd., explained, "Inner Mongolia not only has multiple advantages such as resources, land, and green electricity, but also regards entrepreneurs as' their own people ', which has strengthened our investment confidence."

The Macroeconomic Research Center of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region predicts that the huge demand for new energy construction will drive market growth in upstream raw materials, midstream equipment manufacturing, and downstream operation and maintenance services, contributing at least one trillion yuan to Inner Mongolia's output value. Because we are optimistic about this blue ocean, funds and technology are also rushing in. Yuanjing Technology Group has invested 10 billion yuan in Inner Mongolia in the early stage, and this year will also invest in the construction of industrial chains such as wind power equipment, energy storage batteries, green hydrogen production, and new smart grids, cultivating a green "new industrial" system. State owned banks such as China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications have actively signed strategic cooperation agreements with Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, injecting trillions of yuan of financial vitality into Inner Mongolia during the 14th Five Year Plan period. "Top enterprises dare to invest, and banks are also willing to provide credit," said Zheng Yamin, Vice President of China Construction Bank Inner Mongolia Branch. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is far away, working together with Inner Mongolia to build the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Inner Mongolia Research Institute. The Ordos Energy Research Institute of Peking University and the Baotou Silicon Materials Joint Research Center of Zhejiang University have successively unveiled their names, with rare levels and depths of cooperation.

New gameplay to ensure "hot and orderly"

"To promote the construction of new energy, it is necessary to grasp the issues of development layout and pace, and not only focus on speed and scale, but also neglect quality and efficiency." "New energy construction is not the ultimate goal, and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of Inner Mongolia's economy and society through new energy construction is the goal." Wang Lixia, the Chairman of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said that from the beginning, the autonomous region has identified the development ideas of new energy and introduced a "one shrimp, many eat" leverage model in the development of new energy, which means leveraging large-scale development of new energy to comprehensively leverage the development of equipment manufacturing industry, energy headquarters economy, and state-owned enterprises under the region, and supplemented by institutional construction. This new approach deeply draws lessons from traditional energy development and construction, directly addresses new problems in current new energy development, and opens up new concepts and models for resource development.

Manufacturing of prying equipment. On the surface, the development of new energy may seem glamorous, but in reality, it cannot obtain the benefits of mining rights transfer and resource tax like coal, crude oil, and natural gas. Farmers and herdsmen can obtain small one-time benefits through land transfer or leasing, and the overall benefits of resource development are not high. Therefore, in the development of new energy, Inner Mongolia resolutely abandons the resource development model of simple power generation and sales, adheres to a systematic concept and chain thinking, leverages the huge market demand for new energy development, leverages the strong development of new energy equipment manufacturing industry, strives to transform resource advantages into industrial advantages, and drives the sustained and long-term development of the region. As of now, the construction of the Hubao E Fengguang Hydrogen Storage Equipment Manufacturing Base has begun to take shape. By the end of this year, it can form a supporting capacity of 20 million kilowatts for wind power equipment, a supply capacity of 50 million kilowatts for photovoltaic modules, a production capacity of 250 sets of hydrogen production equipment, and a production capacity of energy storage equipment to meet the demand for 1 million kilowatts of wind turbines. At that time, the new energy sector is expected to create an "industrial Inner Mongolia".

Building a headquarters economy. In the past, a large number of enterprises invested in Inner Mongolia mainly because they valued the local abundant and inexpensive resources, treating Inner Mongolia as a "manufacturing workshop", with headquarters located outside the region, and limited contribution to the local economy. In view of this, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region actively attracts energy enterprises to relocate their functional headquarters, R&D headquarters, and regional headquarters to the local area, leveraging the market opportunities and R&D needs brought about by the expansion of new energy scale, and creating an energy headquarters economy. At present, 26 central enterprises and large-scale enterprises have completed the "separation and transformation" here, and 4 central enterprise new energy headquarters or subsidiaries have settled in Hohhot.

Develop state-owned enterprises under the jurisdiction of the district. To promote the construction of new energy, while seriously considering how to make greater contributions to the country and ensure national energy security, we should also consider the interests of over 24 million people in the entire region, and save more "family wealth" for future generations. With the help of the development of new energy, the autonomous region is focusing on cultivating and strengthening Inner Mongolia Energy Group, creating a new benchmark for energy state-owned enterprises, and clearly supporting district owned enterprises to deeply participate in resource development in project construction, equipment manufacturing, operation and maintenance services, and maximize profits. "We regard the vigorous development of new energy as the 'number one project' of our enterprise." He Yuchun, Chairman of Inner Mongolia Energy Group, said that the company was established less than two years ago, and the total installed capacity of new energy reached 22.84 million kilowatts, which is 12 times that of the company's initial restructuring. Next, the group will take the mission of implementing Inner Mongolia's energy development strategy and continuously improve, grow, and strengthen.

On the other hand, there are often risks of overcapacity, foam development, rent-seeking and corruption. To ensure that this investment frenzy is "hot and orderly", in addition to this new approach, Inner Mongolia has also advanced the construction of the system and improved the new energy regulatory system in advance.

"In the past period, corruption has occurred frequently in the field of energy and resource development due to imperfect systems, non-standard processes, and opaque operations." Liu Zhanbo, Director of the First Supervision and Inspection Office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, stated that the disciplinary inspection department has conducted in-depth analysis of the law of coal related corruption cases, deepened the use of cases to promote reform, construction, and governance, and promoted responsible entities such as the energy regulatory department and power grid enterprises in the autonomous region to conscientiously implement relevant national policy requirements and the opinions of the autonomous region on promoting high-quality development of the new energy industry. The work mechanism has been further improved, the work process has been standardized, and it has been clarified that the main reliance on large-scale energy enterprises to lead the construction of large-scale base external transmission is mainly on the construction of large-scale energy enterprises. The guarantee grid connection projects in the region are coordinated and arranged by the autonomous region, and market-oriented grid connection We will strengthen supervision, plug loopholes, optimize governance, and resolutely curb unhealthy practices in the development and management of new energy resources in Inner Mongolia, in accordance with the development rules for green electricity demand in the load industry. This will make the development and management of new energy resources in Inner Mongolia more standardized, orderly, and transparent.

Responding to new challenges and sustaining investment fever

Wind and solar new energy generation has volatility, randomness, and intermittency, and is far from the load center, which makes it difficult for new energy generation to adapt to human needs in both time and space dimensions. The smooth resolution of difficulties such as grid connection and consumption determines the long-term healthy development of new energy, and is also the key to converting temporary investment heat into sustainable development momentum in Inner Mongolia.

The solution proposed by Inner Mongolia is to moderately advance the construction of a strong, intelligent, and flexible power grid, making the main network "rough", the distribution network "dense", and the power regulation and service capabilities "strong" to meet the needs of large-scale grid integration of new energy. Build a hierarchical new energy consumption system around the newly added load, with a focus on promoting market-oriented consumption and wind solar green hydrogen production, in addition to the traditional channels of supply guarantee and regional guaranteed consumption.

In terms of market-oriented consumption, Inner Mongolia has taken the lead in implementing six new energy application scenarios, including source grid load storage, wind and solar hydrogen production, and green power supply in industrial parks. As long as there is new load and does not occupy grid peak shaving resources, and meets the admission conditions for each scenario, market-oriented consumption new energy projects can be constructed. As of now, 157 market-oriented new energy projects have been approved and implemented in the entire region, with a total installed capacity of 42 million kilowatts. This has given rise to a number of green and low-carbon data centers and zero carbon industrial parks, while also attracting a large number of industrial transfer projects to land in the southeast.

Hydrogen energy is known as the ultimate energy source of the 21st century. The conversion of green electricity into green hydrogen can be widely applied in various fields of production and daily life. This year is the first year of green hydrogen in Inner Mongolia. According to incomplete statistics, there are 80 approved and planned wind and solar hydrogen production projects in China, with a green hydrogen scale of about 1 million tons. Among them, Inner Mongolia has approved and implemented 30 projects, with a green hydrogen scale of 520000 tons, accounting for half of the national total.

Inner Mongolia dares to vigorously develop wind and solar hydrogen production projects, thanks to the rich local application scenarios. Ordos, Wuhai, and Baotou require 7 million tons of hydrogen gas annually in industries such as chemical and metallurgical industries; There are over one million heavy-duty diesel locomotives and mining heavy-duty trucks in the entire region, and there is huge room for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to replace them; There is a huge demand for green hydrogen in Inner Mongolia outside the region. Currently, Inner Mongolia is planning and designing a hydrogen transmission pipeline network centered around Hubei, Hubei, Baotou, and Ukraine, with a hydrogen transmission design capacity of over 6 million tons per year. In addition, hydrogen has many innovative applications, especially with the implementation of carbon tariffs and the consensus on green economy, traditional coal based industries face enormous pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Hydrogen will be widely used as the best alternative raw material in industrial production. For example, using green hydrogen to produce methanol, high-end kerosene, gasoline, etc., opens up new scenarios for green chemical applications beyond traditional coal and petrochemical industries.

Looking towards the future, Inner Mongolia has chosen to leave more imaginative space for new energy to hydrogen energy, proposing a new business card of building a "Green Hydrogen City in Northern Xinjiang". The plan is to initially form a leading domestic industrial ecological cluster for the integrated development of hydrogen energy production, storage, transportation, and application by 2025, and become a leading and internationally renowned gathering place for the development of hydrogen energy industry in China.

"The rich application scenarios of hydrogen energy can absorb a large amount of newly added green electricity, which is the future direction to solve the problem of new energy consumption." Chen Xing, the head of the Hydrogen Energy Business Unit of Liquefied Air Investment Co., Ltd. in China, said that Inner Mongolia has a wide range of hydrogen energy sources. With the continuous expansion of hydrogen energy application scenarios, the development potential of the hydrogen industry is unlimited.

Looking back at history, every energy revolution has brought about an industrial revolution. Under the "dual carbon" goal, the Northwest is becoming a demonstration forefront and important battlefield for China's energy revolution. Dong Yu, Executive Vice President of the China Development Planning Research Institute at Tsinghua University, believes that for Inner Mongolia, this round of new energy investment boom is a breakthrough and a historic opportunity for the rapid development of the regional industrial system. As an important energy base in the country, Inner Mongolia's energy revolution can not only achieve its own green transformation and development, but also provide Inner Mongolia with a sample for achieving the national "dual carbon" goals and establishing a modern industrial system.