Shandong promotes its modernization of a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. [Photo/IC]

East China's Shandong province is stepping up the pace towards its modernization of a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature and boosting its green, low-carbon and high-quality development.

Real economy 

Zhongtong Bus Holding Co Ltd, a pioneer in promoting new energy buses in Liaocheng city in Shandong, recently delivered its first batch of 500 natural gas buses to Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

In 2022, Bishkek bought 120 of the buses and asked for an additional 1,000 units to fully replace its existing fuel-driven bus fleet.

Currently, Zhongtong Bus Holding operates nearly 80,000 new energy buses worldwide, reducing carbon emissions by an estimated 8.86 million metric tons per year. 

In recent years, Shandong has restructured its industry and gone down the path towards green development. As a result, the province has nurtured 223 national-level green factories.

In Zibo city, the Qilu Intelligent Micro System Innovation Industrial Base focuses on the MEMS core industries, optoelectronics and compound semiconductors, involving more than 120 key enterprises and 32 high-end industrial projects.

In Tai'an city, a high-performance composite materials project by Shandong Road New Materials Co Ltd has made breakthroughs in such technologies as carbon fiber composite warp knitting and fiber co-deformation. 

In the first half of the year, Shandong's economy showed a faster recovery and positive momentum, with a GDP of 4.41 trillion yuan ($604.79 billion), representing year-on-year growth of 6.2 percent.

Green transformation

Shandong has also made significant efforts to reduce its carbon emissions and achieve a green transformation of the economy and society. 

Shandong Ronghe Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Technology Co Ltd, for one, has developed high-energy water treatment technology that it says eliminates scaling, corrosion and microbial growth in industrial water systems without the use of chemical additives.

This technology has won it business and it has been adopted by companies such as Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical and Sinopec's Shengli Oilfield. 

Elsewhere, Yantai Binglun Environmental Protection Technology Co Ltd is supplying industrial-grade liquid carbon dioxide for welding purposes in shipyards.

The company purifies about 500 tons of liquefied carbon dioxide per day, with a capture rate of over 95 percent and a purity level of 99.99 percent. This project is widely viewed as having both environmental and commercial significance. 

Manufacturer Jiuyang Group is using Inspur Yunzhou's intelligent steelmaking system to optimize its steel production processes. This system provides real-time data and digital twin interfaces, making traditional steelmaking more transparent and efficient.

Overall, the installed capacity of new energy and renewable energy in Shandong to date has reached 83.82 million kilowatts, accounting for 41.8 percent of total installed capacity. The province also leads in the scale of its new energy storage, with 2.83 million kilowatts in operation.

Ecological protection

Shandong has also taken the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River and low-carbon growth as the driving force for the coordinated advancement of urban and rural areas, as well as land and sea.

The Jinan Yellow River Backwater Park Landscape Project is a typical example of local ecological restoration, with a total of 8,283 saplings covering 179,000 square meters.