Li Lanxiang, mayor of Tai'an, Shandong province. [Photo/Tai'an Daily]

During the ongoing two sessions, Li Lanxiang, mayor of Tai'an, shared his views on building a strong city with new industrialization, boosting the new energy industry, as well as implementing the national strategy on the Yellow River Basin. In 2022, Tai'an's GDP reached 319.81 billion yuan ($45.95 billion), up 4.3 percent year-on-year.  

New industrialization

Since last year, Tai'an has carried out a new industrialization plan to build a strong city. In 2022, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size in Tai'an increased by 9 percent year-on-year and its investment in the manufacturing sector jumped by 40 percent year-on-year.

This year, it will continue efforts to achieve China's "dual carbon" goals of peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, cultivate key industrial clusters and enterprises, promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, as well as create a demonstration area for new industrialization.

Creating an "energy storage city"

The new energy industry has become one of the four advantageous sectors in Tai'an. In 2022, the operating income of the sector totaled 14.5 billion yuan. The installed capacity of new energy storage amounted to 4.2 million kilowatts, accounting for 52.3 percent of the city's total installed electricity capacity.

Tai'an will build a multi-energy storage system backed by pump-storage power stations and salt cavern compressed air energy storage, as well as supplemented by electrochemical energy storage, hydrogen energy, and storage of coal and natural gas.

The city strives to create a new energy industrial cluster, with a scale of 100 billion yuan, featuring "power batteries, energy storage batteries, packaging, and terminal applications." By 2025, the annual installed capacity of renewable energy is expected to exceed 5.5 million kilowatts, accounting for more than 36 percent of its power generation.

Launching 100 key projects under the Yellow River plan

In total, 83 percent of Tai'an's land is located in the Yellow River Basin. The city centers on the governance of the three key regions of Taishan Mountain, Dawen River, and Dongping Lake, promoting the protection, governance, and development of the Yellow River Basin.

The measures include launching 100 key projects every year, restoring mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasslands, accelerating green, low-carbon, and high-quality development, as well as protecting and inheriting traditional cultures.