China’s Oil Giant Sees Its Future in Hydrogen and Clean Energy
China’s biggest oil and gas producer wants to shift half of its output to hydrogen, geothermal energy and clean power by 2050 amid the country’s move toward net-zero emissions.
China National Petroleum Corp. referenced the target in its environmental protection report, which it published on its website Wednesday, saying oil and gas would still make up the other half of its output by then. The company is the parent of PetroChina Co., which said in its annual report in March it aims for new energy to make up half its output by 2050.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.