Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory Settles in Tianfu Haichuang Park

In early winter, Xinglong Lake ushers in a picturesque season of golden leaves and jade-green waves. High-level platforms are built in this place of opportunities, attracting talented minds to gather here.

Not long ago, Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory (hereafter referred to as "the Laboratory") settled in Tianfu Haichuang Park when its gold-color nameplate was put up in this intoxicating autumn scenery. "The Laboratory's temporary office area is set in Western China (Chengdu) Science City with a total area of 5,400 square meters, thus enjoying a wide field of vision and a tranquil environment for scientific and research work."

Latest Progress

Gathering of 16 academicians and five experts in related fields of carbon neutrality; Establishment of Academic Committee of the Laboratory

On December 23, 2021, the Laboratory was officially founded in Sichuan Tianfu New Area, marking a solid step by Sichuan Province towards the improvements in independent innovation capability in carbon peak and carbon neutrality fields, providing a high-level innovation platform for building an important source of advanced green and low-carbon technology innovation in China. 

On December 23, 2021, Tianfu Yongxing Laboratory was officially inaugurated in Sichuan Tianfu New Area. Source: Sichuan Guancha

The one-year-old laboratory starts to take steady steps. Major progress was made in organizational structure and team building. A relevant head of the Laboratory introduced: "The forming of an academic committee and an expert committee was finished. To be specific, 16 academicians and five experts were recruited for the former, while the latter consisted of 54 academicians specializing in the "dual carbon" field. Via an open competition mechanism of the Chengdu talent summit, we've more than 100 positions under five categories, recruiting eight full-time management personnel (including a winner of Finance Talent of Tianfu Ten Thousand Talent Plan) and structuring a management and operation team of more than 20 employees."

With a focal point on scientific and technological innovation, the Laboratory currently deploys six research fields: clean and low-carbon energy, resource carbon neutrality, carbon capture and utilization, carbon sink and geological carbon fixation, coordination between reductions of pollution and carbon emission, and integrated coupling under carbon neutrality. Recently, it has applied for the Building of Science and Technology Innovation Base category of the 2022 Provincial Development Fund of Local Technological Development Guided by the Central Government with the "carbon brain" smart platform project, which was approved.

Focusing on the stranglehold technical problems in carbon neutrality

Building a highland for gathering talent, a pioneer for scientific and technological innovation, and a driving force for industrial development in carbon neutrality

The Laboratory, as one of the four key labs under Tianfu Laboratory with the approval of the People’s Government of Sichuan Province, will serve as a core platform for research of core technologies in green development and low carbon fields; meanwhile, it shoulders a significant responsibility to tackle stranglehold technical problems in carbon neutrality.

Aiming at the international cutting-edge, Sichuan characteristic and low-carbon industries, the Laboratory is jointly built by Academician Zhang Yuanhang of Peking University as the Director and Academician He Kebin of Tsinghua University as the Director of the Academic Committee, gathering more than 60 academicians, experts and scholars in the field of carbon neutrality in China, relying on Sichuan University, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu University of Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, and other key units such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute of Tsinghua University, and Sichuan Institute of Transportation Development Strategy and Planning Science. Build a highland for talent gathering for carbon neutrality, a pioneer in scientific and technological innovation, and an engine for industrial development.

Looking ahead, it will deeply tap into the new national system, and opens up the whole innovation chain of "basic research-technological breakthrough-industrial transformation" through the operation mode of "core + base + network". In this way, the Laboratory will promote the high-quality development of low-carbon industries and the green transformation of the economy and society, serve the national strategy for the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone, write Sichuan's answer and establish Sichuan's example to China's goal of carbon neutrality, and present China's plans and contributions to climate change.

Structuring a zero-carbon model

Figuring out a Tianfu Scheme for the sustainable development of future cities

As mentioned at the 20th CPC National Congress, China will work actively and prudently toward the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. The Laboratory was built to serve the national strategy and take the duty of consolidating the home front for the new-era national strategy; also, it creates a powerful impetus for the strategy implementation of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and building Chengdu into a scientific and technological innovation center with national influence. Therefore, it is of huge strategic significance.

So far, Tianfu New Area has developed various ecological spaces connected by low-carbon scenarios and demonstration networks of carbon neutrality. For example, Xinglong Lake, which is near the Chengdu Science City, has built a three-dimensional carbon fixation network through an improvement project for aquatic ecology. Also, Chengdu Supercomputing Center has joined hands with new energy enterprises, such as State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), in testing and business cooperation to contribute to the carbon neutrality goals. The newly opened West China Tianfu Hospital, with an architectural complex that covers about 1.45 million square meters in Unicorn Island, embedded a green development concept and new technologies in its architectural designs. Examples are way more than these.

The realization of dual carbon goals will be pursued as a grand undertaking for future generations and human beings. In Tianfu New Area, continuous improvements will be made to the service efficiency of the support system, along with an enhanced emphasis on organizational leadership and innovation in policies. Meanwhile, a series of services will be prepared to align with such demands as sci-tech resource factors and talent attraction and cultivation of the Laboratory. In addition, more support will be given to major actions, demonstration projects, and technological innovation in green development and low-carbon areas. With determined steps to conquer new heights in scientific and technological development, the core role of this innovation source will be constantly reinforced. Aiming at emerging industries in the future, we will further iterate and empower different industrial ecologies; creating a zero-carbon model, we look to hasten new impetus for green development. By taking a series of actions to match and apply the Park City Index in our practice of reaching dual carbon goals, we will figure out a Tianfu Scheme for the sustainable development of future cities.

[ By  Xu lisha from Sichuan Daily ]