One major direction for clean and efficient utilization of coal is to promote energy conservation and consumption reduction of coal-fired power units. In recent years, with the development of large-scale and clean power units, China's thermal power unit parameters, performance, and output have comprehensively occupied the world's first place, and the main thermal power equipment has basically achieved localization. The goals of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" put forward higher requirements for clean and efficient utilization of coal. In order to meet the requirements of lower coal consumption thermal power units, it is necessary to continue to promote the improvement of heat-resistant materials for domestic thermal power equipment and move towards a higher level. At the recent symposium on promoting the high-quality development of domestic thermal power pipelines, Chen Xinghang, Vice Chairman of the China Energy Research Association, was specially invited to express the need to strengthen the clean and efficient utilization of coal, improve the independent controllability of China's power equipment industry and supply chain, and accelerate the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient new energy system. The principle of coal-fired power generation can be simply understood as "boiling water", which releases heat energy through coal combustion, generates high-temperature and high-pressure steam to drive the turbine to rotate, and then drives the generator to rotate through the turbine to generate electricity. In theory, the higher the steam pressure and temperature, the higher the thermal efficiency of the unit, the lower the coal consumption, and the lower the carbon emissions, which means that coal-fired power is cleaner. With the continuous advancement of material technology and the improvement of thermal power theory, the steam parameters of thermal power plants have gone through several development processes based on different temperatures and pressures, including low pressure, medium pressure, high pressure, ultra-high pressure, subcritical, supercritical, and ultra supercritical. Under the requirements of low-carbon development of coal-fired power, ultra supercritical technology has become the mainstream in the current coal-fired power field. Higher steam temperature and pressure require better heat-resistant materials as support. Since 2008, China has accelerated the technological research and development process of high-temperature alloy materials and key high-temperature components manufacturing, aiming to completely break the international monopoly of thermal power heat-resistant materials and produce completely independently developed products. The National Energy Administration has held work meetings to organize relevant enterprises to conduct joint research and development on key valves for ultra supercritical thermal power units, as well as main steam pipelines, reheat steam pipelines, high-pressure feedwater pipelines, and bypass pipelines for thermal power units. According to the localization work tasks of the four major pipelines, the National Energy Administration has formulated the "Implementation Plan for Localization of Large Diameter Thick walled Seamless Steel Pipes for Ultra (Ultra) Critical Thermal Power Units", further strengthening the organization and coordination of localization based on engineering construction. At present, China has preliminarily achieved the localization of four major heat-resistant materials for pipelines, which can meet the demand of coal-fired units at 620 degrees Celsius. With the deepening of the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, the research and application of thermal power units with higher temperature and pressure, and lower coal consumption have been put on the agenda. However, when the temperature exceeds 620 degrees Celsius and the pressure approaches 30 megapascals or more, the existing domestically produced heat-resistant materials cannot meet the requirements, becoming a key factor restricting further reduction of coal consumption in China's thermal power plants. Therefore, in the "14th Five Year Plan for Science and Technology Innovation in the Energy Sector", it is explicitly proposed to carry out key technology research on the manufacturing, processing, welding, and inspection of 700 degree Celsius grade high-temperature alloy materials and key high-temperature components for advanced high parameter ultra supercritical coal-fired power generation technology. To further reduce coal consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in power plants, it is necessary to increase steam parameters. The improvement of operating parameters of power plant boilers mainly depends on the applicable range of boiler materials Liu Zhengdong, academician of the CAE Member, said. With the efforts of all parties, breakthroughs have been made in domestic heat-resistant material technology. The Iron and Steel Research Institute, Baowu Group, Hongrun Nuclear Equipment and other units have successfully carried out the engineering technology research and development of G115 large-diameter thick walled steel pipes. In the national power demonstration project launched on August 31, 2023- the world's first 630 degree Celsius Datang Yuncheng 2 million kilowatt ultra supercritical secondary reheating coal-fired power generation units main project, G115 high-temperature resistant steel was first applied to coal-fired power units, raising the inlet steam temperature of the turbine to 631 degrees Celsius, overcoming the technical barrier of 620 degrees Celsius for similar million kilowatt units, and improving the thermal efficiency of coal-fired power generation to over 50%. At the same time, the coal consumption has decreased by 14 grams compared to the 270 grams per kilowatt hour of advanced units of the same type. In the view of Jiang Haifeng, Deputy Director of the Engineering Equipment Department of Datang Yuncheng Power Generation Company, there is still room for reducing coal consumption in thermal power plants in the future with the further improvement of domestic high-temperature resistant new material technology. Chen suggested that relevant departments should continue to improve the support policies for the first (set) of energy technology equipment and promote the demonstration and application of major technology equipment; We need to support innovative enterprises to grow into innovation birthplaces, improve support policies and public service systems, and promote the full release of innovation and entrepreneurship potential of enterprises. (New Society)