Present situation of marine industry development in China

China is a developing maritime power, with a coastline of1.8000 km on the mainland and1.4000 km on the islands, more than 6500 islands with an area of over 500 square meters, and nearly 3 million square kilometers of sea areas claiming rights.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Land and Resources, during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China's marine economy grew at an average annual rate of 13.5%, which was consistently higher than the national economic growth rate in the same period. 20 1 1 year, China's total marine production reached 4.557 trillion yuan, more than double the initial period of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2. 1592 trillion yuan in 2006); Marine GDP accounts for 9.7% of GDP, and coastal areas account for 15.9% of GDP. There are 34.2 million offshore employees. Marine economy has become a powerful engine to promote the development of national economy and build an open economy.

The data shows that, especially since the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the marine economy has become a powerful support for the development of the eastern coastal areas of China. The development layout of Liaoning coastal economic belt, Caofeidian Industrial Zone in Hebei, Tianjin Binhai New Area, Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone, Shanghai Pudong New Area, Zhejiang Marine Economic Development Demonstration Zone, Jiangsu Coastal Economic Zone, Fujian Strait West Coast Economic Zone, Guangdong Marine Economic Comprehensive Development Experimental Zone, Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, Hainan International Tourism Island, etc., make the development of marine economy even more powerful and in the ascendant.

China's traditional marine industry is constantly improving. The shipping capacity has been continuously improved, with 20 ports exceeding 100 million tons, and the cargo throughput has remained the first in the world for seven consecutive years; Offshore oil and gas production has entered the ranks of big countries. In 20 10, offshore oil and gas production exceeded 50 million tons of oil equivalent for the first time, which was equivalent to a "Daqing at sea". Shipbuilding capacity has been comprehensively improved. 20 1 1 year, the shipbuilding industry ranks first in the world in terms of shipbuilding completion, hand-held orders and new orders, and ship exports cover 169 countries and regions around the world. The capabilities of marine industrialized farming and offshore fishing have been significantly improved, and the processing and export capabilities of marine aquatic products have been continuously improved.

The rapid start-up of emerging marine industries is becoming the biggest attraction of China's marine economy and even China's "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" economic transformation. At present, China offshore wind power generation technology has entered the stage of commercial operation, and tidal current energy and wave power generation technology have entered the stage of demonstration operation; The technology of extracting potassium, bromine and magnesium from seawater has entered the stage of industrial test. Marine strategic emerging industries supported by marine high technology have developed rapidly, with an average annual growth rate of over 20%. 20 1 1 year, the added value of seawater utilization industry is nearly 1 100 million yuan, which is twice as much as that at the beginning of the 11th Five-Year Plan. The added value of marine renewable energy industry is nearly 4.9 billion yuan, which is more than 10 at the beginning of the 11th Five-Year Plan. At the same time, a number of new service formats such as cruise ships, yachts, leisure fisheries, marine culture, sea-related finance and shipping services have accelerated development.

In 2008, China's major marine industries maintained rapid growth, achieving an added value of122.43 billion yuan, an increase of 10.4% over the previous year.

Marine mining. In 2008, China continued to strengthen the management of sea sand mining, effectively controlled the mining of nonmetallic minerals, expanded the production scale of metal mining industry, and further optimized the industrial structure of marine mining industry. The added value of the whole year was 900 million yuan, an increase of 265,438+0.3% over the previous year.

-Marine salt industry. In 2008, the production of marine salt industry made efforts to overcome the impact of low temperature, rain, snow and freezing disasters and rising production costs at the beginning of the year, and the production and operation continued to maintain a stable development trend. The annual added value was 5.9 billion yuan, an increase of 1 1.2% over the previous year.

Marine fishery. In 2008, the coastal areas controlled the fishing intensity and vigorously adjusted the industrial structure of marine fisheries, and the marine fisheries developed steadily, achieving an annual added value of 22 1.6 billion yuan, an increase of 3.3% over the previous year. The added value of marine fisheries in Shandong Province accounts for 33.8% of the national added value of marine fisheries, and continues to rank first in the country.

-Offshore oil and gas industry. In 2008, affected by the sharp fluctuation of international oil prices, the output value of offshore oil and gas industry increased rapidly in the first half of the year, and the growth rate dropped in the second half. The annual added value was 87.4 billion yuan, a decrease of 1. 1% compared with the previous year.

Schematic diagram of wave power generation principle

Thousands of kilometers away from the coastline of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, hidden under the waves and out of the sight of surveillance ships, three huge buoys are about to start working to generate electricity by capturing ocean energy. These orange buoys are 1 1 m wide and 5m high. They look a bit like giant pumpkins. Whenever the waves pass by, these buoys tied with ropes will drive the hydraulic pump on the seabed, converting the kinetic energy of the ocean into 720 kilowatts of electricity, which will supply power to the nearby naval base.

These buoys were developed by Carnegie Institute of Wave Energy in Australia, which is the latest attempt to obtain energy from the ocean. These buoys will be put into use in June this year. The researchers said that this groundbreaking marine energy capture plan may have great repercussions and promote the rapid development of the marine energy industry, but some senior people in this field are cautiously optimistic.

The prospect is bright, but the road is tortuous.

In theory, the energy contained in the ocean is enough to meet the global power demand without any pollution. In addition, compared with wind energy or solar energy technology, ocean energy power generation technology has unique advantages: high energy density, the energy density of wave energy is 4 to 30 times that of wind energy; Compared with solar energy, ocean energy is not affected by the weather and is more stable and reliable. In addition, ocean energy also has geographical advantages: about 44% of the world's population lives within/0/50 km from the coastline. Although the potential environmental impact needs further investigation, many researchers believe that ocean energy is a better energy source than wind energy.

According to foreign media reports, in August, 2065438+2002, the Australian Federation of Science and Technology released a report saying that by 2050, using ocean waves to generate electricity will provide 1 1% of Australia's national electricity consumption, which can meet the electricity demand of a city as big as Melbourne. Areas that may benefit from wave power generation include Perth, Australia's fourth largest city, and parts of Australia's southern and eastern coasts. However, the report also pointed out that economic, technological, environmental and social factors will also affect the proportion of wave power generation in Australia's future energy composition.

However, the research field of using ocean energy to generate electricity is progressing slowly: so far, all the large-scale equipment developed has not proved its value in the fiercely competitive energy market. Moreover, few equipment can survive and generate electricity after being ravaged by the harsh marine environment for a long time. Although in the past 10 years, the total investment of 10 large companies in ocean energy has reached 735 million dollars, but the ocean energy from tides and waves has not made substantial progress. In fact, marine energy has always been very expensive, and it is the most expensive form of energy on earth.

However, for those who want to make use of ocean energy, the prospect is clearer than before. In the past few years, several large companies in the industry have acquired tidal energy (this is the earliest way to capture ocean energy, which refers to the energy obtained from the day and night fluctuations of the sea surface. In the process of high tide or low tide, seawater enters and exits the reservoir to drive the generator to generate electricity. In addition, in March this year, three tidal energy projects were approved in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. The daily tidal height of Fendi Bay is16.2m, which is 5 to 10 times higher than that of any other waters in the world. Every day,/kloc-0.00 billion tons of seawater enters and exits the Bay of Fundy twice, exceeding the sum of all freshwater rivers in the world. The process of ebb and flow takes 6 hours 13 minutes, and the power generation potential is huge.

The attempt to use tidal water to generate electricity in this area began in the 1920s. However, due to technical difficulties, high construction cost, frequent shipping activities in the bay, possible environmental pollution, opposition from private power companies and other reasons, large-scale development and utilization of tidal water resources for power generation has not yet been realized. Now, the glaciers seem to be melting slowly.

However, the wave energy in the sea area is aimed at more powerful and unpredictable energy. At present, the development of this field has experienced some retrogression, such as the decision to reduce the wave energy device near the Oregon coastline passed last month. According to the US Renewable Energy World website, on August 20, 20 12, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed to build a 1.5 MW wave power station on the Oregon coast, which is the first approved wave power station in the United States. In the spring of 20 13, the company began to deploy its wave energy facility-a computer buoy with a length exceeding 100 feet, which will swing up and down quickly to capture energy when waves pass by.

Nevertheless, few people doubt that these two kinds of marine energy will eventually prosper. Last year, the London-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance Consulting Company pointed out that more than 22 tidal energy projects and 17 wave energy projects are expected to be successfully installed by 2020, all of which can provide more than 1 MW of electricity, enough to supply power to 250 households.

Energy experts hope that one day, the ocean can provide a large number of reliable carbon-free energy for coastal cities. Neil Coleman, executive director of the European Ocean Energy Center, said: "Research shows that this is more difficult than people initially thought, but we can do it." The European Ocean Energy Center is the main testing institution for wave energy and tidal energy equipment located in orkney Island, England. He said: "We have proved that we can use the flowing seawater to generate electricity, which is a huge progress."

Tidal energy: more money is needed.

Stratford Bay is an inlet in the southeast of Belfast, the largest city in Northern Ireland. Twice a day, about 350 million liters of tide flows through a narrow channel, flows into Stratford Bay, and then returns to the ocean. There is a tall tower in the bay, and its base is firmly fixed on the seabed, and there are a pair of propellers (propellers) with a length of 16 meters on the base. The force generated by seawater flowing through the tower is equivalent to the force generated by the wind traveling at a speed of 555 km/h, which will push the propeller to rotate at a speed of 15 times /min, and the generated electric energy is as high as 1.2 MW.

In fact, in addition to the traditional propeller, Tide Energy Company also tried some wonderful devices to generate electricity, such as screw hammer, seaplane and underwater kite. However, in terms of efficiency, the equipment used in Stratford Bay is one of the best. The equipment was developed by Bristol Ocean Current Turbine Company. According to the company's data, up to now, 90% of the electricity provided by the whole tidal energy industry is generated by this design.

The high efficiency of the Stranford Bay tidal power generation project attracted the interest of the industrial giant Siemens Munich, Germany, and took over the company on 20 12. Ocean current turbine company plans to lay five 2 MW equipment arrays on the coastline of Wales before 20 16. At present, they are preparing to launch the first batch of equipment, and the cost of each equipment is about150,000 USD. Kay Colmore, chairman of the company, said that in addition to increasing the size of the machine, they also added a third fan blade, which can reduce vibration and make the machine more durable.

Christopher Sol, CEO of Marine Renewable Energy Company in Portland, Maine, said that although large companies like Siemens are entering this industry, the biggest challenge facing the whole industry is still to attract enough funds to make efficient and durable equipment models. Sol's company developed a unique device and placed it near the coastline of Maine. This device looks a bit like the rotating blades of a combine harvester. The company is currently studying the second generation equipment, and the laying work will be completed as early as 20 15.

Although great progress has been made in this field, people's doubts have not diminished. Kolmore said: "I think some venture capital companies have given us little hope, but this is not an industry that can make money quickly."

Wave energy: durable machines are "bright spots"

Ocean waves contain huge energy potential, but the wave energy industry is facing a completely different challenge from tidal energy, that is, to develop a machine that can extract this energy stably and reliably and continue to operate in the harsh environment of the ocean. Many companies have designed various types of machines, from freely swinging blades to gyro equipment that can convert the swing of the ship into circular motion to drive the generator on board.

Each device has its own advantages, but the buoy laid by Carnegie Institute of Wave Energy in Australia has been transferred from water to water. On the one hand, the purpose of doing this is to escape the violent impact of waves on the ocean surface; In addition, it also avoids the argument whether the equipment faced by wind power plants is beautiful and conforms to aesthetic principles.

As the carrier buoy moves up and down, the underwater pump will circulate the liquid through a closed ring, which is about 3 kilometers long and closely connected with the power generation equipment on the coast. The whole set of equipment works like bagpipes: it keeps accumulating pressure, then slowly releases it and continues to generate electricity. There are three sets of the same equipment, each of which can generate 240 kilowatts. Carnegie Institute of Wave Energy once tested the old model in the same sea area of 20 1 1, and its power generation was only the new model 1/3. Greg Allen, the company's chief operating officer, revealed that the first commercial model will be launched as early as 20 18.

The Edinburgh-based Sea Snake Wave Power Company has taken a different approach. The company connects five buoys floating on the sea, which will float up and down with the waves like snakes. Each buoy moves independently, and the hydraulic pump at each node can use the wave motion to transport the liquid to the generator on board to generate electricity.

Sea snake wave power generation company is currently testing a 750kW device on Onek island. Moreover, the company also cooperated with Scottish Power Renewable Energy Company to add new components to the hydraulic pump to reduce internal wear. In addition, the company is still studying the algorithm, hoping that the equipment can adjust its 16 hydraulic pump independently to maximize power generation.

Although many achievements have been made in the utilization of wave energy, the commercial investment it attracts is still lacking. Angus McLean, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg New Energy Finance Consulting, pointed out that the main reason is that there is no equipment that can resist the harsh marine environment and stabilize the power supply at the same time.

Environmental protection and economic benefits will achieve a win-win situation.

The development of marine energy industry is restricted not only by capital and technology, but also by many regulatory authorities, mainly focusing on the protection of fish. These people worry that the tragedy of a large number of birds dying around wind turbines may be staged again in the ocean. So some strict rules have been formulated. For example, before the offshore test, Ocean Flow Turbine Company must install seal detection equipment on its turbine, and once the seal is close to the turbine (this will hardly happen), the detection equipment will be pressed for emergency stop. In addition, the proposal of testing equipment in Puget Sound, a narrow and irregularly shaped bay in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Washington, USA, was almost killed because of the fear that the submarine turbine designed by Ireland's OpenHydro company would turn killer whales into whale sushi.

Gail Zdervisky, a fish biologist at Maine State University in the United States, said that she could only get limited data on fish activities near the tidal generator set installed by Ocean Renewable Energy Company. She said that fish would probably avoid turbines voluntarily, but she was curious about one thing: what would happen when another turbine unit was laid near this group of turbines? Her research team is still collecting basic data in order to improve its research model and calculate the potential impact and how much field work is needed.

Others are busy in the laboratory. Biologists in laboratories under the US Department of Energy conducted some tests. They let the fish pass through turbines and put them in an electromagnetic field, similar to the electromagnetic field around cables that transmit energy to the coast. The final data shows that the results of these two studies show that fish have not been permanently damaged.

Taking killer whales living in Puget Sound as an example, researchers from Northwest Pacific National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory under the US Department of Energy studied and analyzed the worst possibility: What would happen if a curious killer whale accidentally got his head stuck in one of the turbines?

Two research teams tested a variety of different rubber materials (mainly used to simulate the skin of killer whales) and made a model to understand the potential damage that turbine blades may cause to killer whales. Last year, a dead whale washed up on the coastline near Seattle. Scientists used a computer to scan the whale's skull, hoping to find the weakness of whale fat and skin, and use this information to improve their model. They also extracted some whale skin and tested its strength in the laboratory.

The research results were released in June 5438 this year+10. Andrew Coping, a marine biologist at Northwest Pacific National Laboratory, who led the study, said that the results showed that if a killer whale hit a turbine blade head-on, it might only get a little scratch. Cowing said: "When a whale hits a ship, only the fracture of the frontal bone will cause it to die, and the force generated by the killer whale hitting the fan blade is simply not enough to make this happen." Based on this, on March 20th this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the group's application for turbine testing in Puget Sound.

Coping is also leading an international research team to collect and integrate all environmental studies related to the development of tidal energy and wave energy, with the aim of finding out the most likely impacts and then focusing on solving these problems.

The first report was published in June, 20 13 and 1 year, and its main points focused on the following three aspects: animal interaction, turbine noise, and the influence of extracting energy from marine system and reducing seawater flow rate. The research team reported that so far, there is no evidence that the development of related industries will have a significant impact on marine life or seawater flow, but the impact of large equipment is still difficult to predict.

In these three areas, the noise problem is relatively difficult to solve. The researchers carefully measured a single device and found that after being trapped in the device for 24 hours, the fish seemed to be able to tolerate the noise generated by the machine except for some skin injuries, but the long-term and extensive impact that the whole device might have was unpredictable. Moderate noise may help drive animals away from machines, but if it is too loud, it will affect whales and other animals that rely on sound communication. Gao Ping said: "Many or all of these projects need to be well supervised. The ocean is everyone's backyard, so we can't be too careful in the research involving the ocean. "

Developers, researchers and environmentalists all agree that in order to better understand the economic benefits and environmental impacts of related industries, more machines need to be arranged at sea. Mike Ron, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg New Energy Financial Consulting Co., believes that due to the lack of commercial interests and the termination of some projects, Wave Energy may not be able to occupy a place in their next evaluation, but he also believes that related industries will definitely gain a double harvest in terms of economic effects and environmental protection.

At present, a hot spot in this field is Fundy Bay in Canada, where three projects are about to start, including the installation of a set of equipment capable of generating 4 MW, two of which are from OpenHydro. By 20 15 years, these devices will be able to supply power to 1000 households. If all goes according to plan, the company hopes to add and upgrade equipment and eventually generate 300 MW of electricity. Although this is only equivalent to the power generation of a small coal-fired power plant, it is a great progress for the marine energy industry.

Mcclellan said: "eventually, the marine energy industry will take off, even take off. There are countless energy sources in the ocean." (Liu Xia)