PetroChina Dagang Oilfield Company, a producer and supplier of oil in north China's Tianjin, uses green solar energy to extract oil from underground.

At one of its facilities, about 20 oil wells run on electricity generated by over 150 photovoltaic (PV) panels.

The PV power facilities generated 8.7 million kWh of electricity in the first half of 2022, according to Zhao Pingqi, an official from the company.

A total of 48-megawatt PV power facilities in the oilfield will be operational by the end of this year, with an annual electricity output of about 65 million kWh. This means a reduction of over 50,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise be produced by thermal power generation, said Li Jianliang, vice manager of the company's new energy department.

But this is only part of its ambitious plan to deploy green energy. They plan to reach an

installed capacity of wind and solar power to 650 megawatts by the end of 2025, not only satisfying their own needs, but also selling surplus energy.

According to Dai Houliang, chairman of PetroChina, new energy will account for 7 percent and 50 percent of the company's total energy production capacity by 2025 and 2050, respectively.

China has vowed to tackle climate change and follow a path of green and low-carbon development. It has pledged to reach peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.  

Starting production in 1964, Dagang Oilfield is the third oilfield independently developed and operated by China after 1949. Last year, the oilfield had an oil and gas output of around 4.5 million tons of oil equivalent.