Yantai, Shandong: Empowering island biodiversity conservation with clean power

Island ecosystems occupy a pivotal position in global biodiversity conservation and the energy transition, given their geographical isolation and ecological fragility.

Located at the place where the Yellow Sea meets the Bohai Sea, Changdao (the Changshan Islands) sits at the hub of the East Asian-Australasian and Western Pacific migratory bird corridors, and is a critical habitat for rare marine species such as the spotted seal and the East Asian finless porpoise. It faced the dual pressures of energy supply and ecological protection, as the low-altitude zone where fledglings learn to fly sits at much the same height as power lines, significantly raising the risk of line trips caused by bird nests.

To address this challenge, State Grid Yantai Power Supply Company has explored a path that integrates "smart energy" with "ecological protection" on Changdao.

Changdao comprises 151 islands in the Bohai Strait and serves as a "barometer" of the Yellow and Bohai Sea ecosystem. In 2021, Yantai city set the goal of building Changdao into an "international zero-carbon island", aiming for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the whole area by 2035. Against this backdrop, State Grid Corporation of China has taken root on Changdao, shaping a comprehensive protection model built on volunteer service, the commitment of frontline staff, and green infrastructure.

Wang Maoyong, manager at the Changshan Power Supply Station of State Grid Yantai Changdao Power Supply Company, has spent 36 years keeping the lights on for Daheishan Island.

He follows a "gentle rule" of his own: rather than clearing nests by force, he moves those in high-risk spots down to abandoned towers lower down, helping the birds "move home". On his patrols he has brought together a volunteer team to protect the island and carries basic first-aid supplies, and has found and rescued a sparrow hawk — a class II nationally protected wild animal.

Thanks to his years of gentle bird-protection work, the number of migratory birds on Daheishan Island has grown year by year, and populations of rare birds such as the Oriental white stork and herons continue to expand. At the same time, bird-related line trips have fallen by 90 percent year on year, striking a balance between grid operation and maintenance and the protection of wild birds. Behind this lies a systematic approach at State Grid Yantai: weaving biodiversity protection into every stage of grid work.

The company also regularly opens its environmental microgrid and ecological monitoring facilities to students and visitors, and runs public lectures and volunteer programs on island ecology. Since 2026, it has marked World Wildlife Day with coastal cleanups, International Bird Lovers' Day with bird protection advocacy, and World Environment Day with green power campaigns — encouraging the wider public to take part in protecting island biodiversity.

In addition, the ongoing 110-kilovolt Yongxing power transmission and transformation project aims to become the country's first standardized construction site that is "land-sea connected, zero-carbon and eco-friendly". The site was deliberately located to avoid core ecological protection areas: topsoil is stripped and preserved during construction, materials are flown in by drone, and the site will be reforested once work is complete. Discarded concrete components will be placed in scientifically selected marine areas to build "artificial reefs". At the dedicated spotted seal ecological monitoring site on Danglang Island, State Grid Yantai has installed ecological cameras, photovoltaic panels and energy storage units built for the island's high-salt, windy conditions. Powered entirely by green electricity, the site monitors spotted seals, finless porpoises and rare migratory birds around the clock.

A 40-kilometer autonomous drone inspection route now covers the whole area, supported by 13 drone airports, eight shore-based radars and more than 280 land and sea video surveillance channels. A digital big data map for submarine cable protection enables 24-hour online monitoring of mountain forests and sea areas, with data shared in real time with environmental protection authorities. Together with AI recognition that automatically issues early warnings of ecological hazards, this has created a closed-loop biodiversity protection mechanism built on government-enterprise collaboration, data sharing, and joint prevention and control.

Backed by green electricity, Daheishan Island in Changdao was certified as China's first carbon-negative island in 2022, cutting more than 2,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions a year. More significantly, this effort in Changdao shows that grid companies are not only energy suppliers, but also active promoters of biodiversity conservation. By securing green power supply through source-grid-load-storage coordination, reducing human disturbance with zero-carbon smart monitoring, and protecting both power lines and birds through eco-friendly design, Changdao has opened a new path on which the energy transition and ecological protection reinforce each other.