China, U.S. should focus on "bottlenecks" in clean energy development: official

China and the U.S., the two biggest energy producers and consumers in the world, face the same challenge in energy development and their cooperation in clean energy is a way to solve current energy problems, aid Liu Qi, deputy head of China's National Energy Administration.

Liu said at the Sino-U.S. Clean Energy Roundtable that the two countries have already had significant achievements in clean energy cooperation. The two sides have signed a 10-year energy, environment framework and held several energy policy negotiations as well as forums on oil and natural gas. Sino-U.S. clean energy center was established this year.

The Sino-U.S. Clean Energy Roundtable was jointly hosted by China's National Energy Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Commerce. Experts and representatives from the two countries' governments and enterprises were invited to this event to discuss the two sides' cooperation in clean energy.

Liu noted that the cooperation should focus on realistic problems to break the "bottlenecks" in clean energy development.

He suggested that the two sides should pay more attentions to fields including integration of wind power plants into the Grid, smart grid technologies, the large-scale utilization of solar energy, hybrid and electric vehicle market and the policy framework that can promote clean energy development.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said that clean energy technology is one of the most beneficial areas for U.S.-China cooperation and also the only way for the two countries to keep sustained economic growth and combat global climate change.

Locke said he plans to lead an energy and trade mission to China next March, which would include U.S. firms from new energy technology sectors and make stops in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu also attended the conference, expressing optimism about U.S.-China cooperation in the deployment and development of clean energy technology.