China helps 'empower' developing nations

According to Wang, his course focused on explaining how new energy power prediction and demand response technology can help scale up the development of new energy, reduce energy transition costs, and reduce wind and solar curtailment.

However, he faced a challenging question from the students during a class: "We come from diverse countries with vastly different national conditions, resource endowments, development levels, economic status, and policies. How can we effectively learn from and apply China's new energy power forecasting and demand response technologies? And how can we promote the adoption of these new technologies in our respective countries?"

"It's true," Wang said. "But developing countries can base their choices on resource endowments and infrastructure levels, and select corresponding technological pathways according to different scenarios."

Wang gave an example — in areas with abundant wind and solar resources such as the Sahel region in Africa and desert areas in the Middle East, priority could be given to introducing "wind-solar power prediction plus energy storage" technologies.

Many of the students from developing countries, Wang said, were very interested in learning how to apply China's advanced technologies in their own countries.

"The reason is that Chinese technologies are renowned for being low-cost and highly robust, which aligns well with the weak infrastructure and limited funds in developing countries," he said.

Moreover, China's technologies have significantly lowered the application threshold through "large-scale production plus localization substitution", leading to remarkable results in technology application, Wang added.

Marong said, "As a senior energy expert at the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Mines of The Gambia, I have always looked forward to enhancing my knowledge and understanding in the areas of energy efficiency enhancements and improvements within the power systems."

He added that the seminar has increased his understanding of energy efficiency improvements with power systems, which is in line with his job; it will enable him to channel the knowledge and skills he has gained to make an impact on the overall development of the power system in The Gambia.

"I hope to learn from China's experience and solve our issues. I also hope prominent Chinese companies can invest in The Gambia's power system to improve its reliability and sustainability, and ensure that we are energy secure as a nation through capacity development," Marong said.