Chinese city of Yulin aims to be energy technology hub

At the same time, the city is pushing for renewable energy to reduce the use of the dirty sources in the coming decades.
Yulin, the northernmost prefecture-level city of Shaanxi province, has recently cooperated with Japan and some Western countries including Germany to research and develop green-technology equipment, a source from Yulin Municipality who asked not to be named told The Nation recently. 
The city’s ambitious goal of becoming a regional centre of energy equipment and innovation was highlighted at the 11th “Yulin International Coal Energy Equipment and Technology Expo” hosted by Yulin Municipal Party Committee in late September. At the event, foreign and local companies and technology institutes displayed and exchanged their energy innovations. 
“There is 1 billion renminbi of wealth beneath every square kilometre of land,” Yulin Mayor Zhang Haifeng said in a recent press interview. “The potential valve of the underground mineral resources has exceeded 40 trillion renminbi, which takes up one-third of the total value in China and 95 per cent of that in Shaanxi province. 
“Yulin has become … one of the vital alternative-energy bases of China in the 21st century.” 
According to the source, the Chinese state has encouraged Shaanxi University of Science and Technology and Yulin National High-Tech Industrial Park, which specialises in the energy-chemical, new-energy and equipment-manufacturing industries, to conduct research on green technology and coal equipment. 
The advanced equipment arising from such R&D, the source said, will initially be tested and used domestically before being exported to overseas markets. 
Yulin claims to be the largest production base of gas-purification equipment in Asia and China’s largest methanol production base. In addition, the city possesses 48 kinds of minerals including salt and coal, enabling it to be the national base of the energy-chemical industry. Zhang said its estimated coal reserves totalled 280 billion tonnes and proven reserves of 150 billion tonnes.
Besides coal and gas, which are considered dirty energy sources because of their massive carbon-dioxide emissions, the city invests in alternative, renewable energy in the form of the photovoltaic industry. 
Since 2010, Yulin’s state-owned Jingbian Photovoltaic Industrial Park, a 5-billion-yuan (Bt25-billion) project with capacity to produce half a megawatt, accounting for 17 per cent of the province’s electricity, has confirmed the state’s attempt to push for clean energy along with the use of coal. By 2020, the park aims to increase the capacity to 2MW, according to Liu Huaicheng, a key figure in the project. 
Despite the project’s initial high cost and low profit, he said it would generate a good return on investment within 10 years.
In addition, to accelerate the city’s economic growth, Yulin has set its sights on becoming a tourism destination under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative by means of comprehensive cooperation with countries along those land and sea routes, Zhang said. 
The president’s economic paradigm, which aims to cooperate and improve trade and relations with Asean, Central Asian and European countries, not only provides an important platform of mutual development for countries along the routes, but also bring new development opportunities for China’s western region, the mayor said. 
The city will also create a tourism brand for Yulin and accelerate the construction of facilities to service its more than 1,600 places of interest. These include the prehistoric Shimao site, the ruins of Tongwan, the only city of the ancient Xiongnu people ever found, and the first town of the Great Wall, he said. 
“With its deep culture roots, rich tourism resources and diverse ethnic customs, we will further develop the spirit and connotation of the city’s role as an ancient frontier city, its deserts, yellow-earth culture and Communist culture,” he said.