Status and Prospect of New Energy: A Review

With respect to conventional energy, the significant advantages of new energy are the balanced regional distribution and the large resource extent which, to some extent, could be regarded as infinity compared with human´s demand for energy. The development and utilization of new energy are beneficial to optimize energy consumption structure, to protect ecological environment, and to guarantee energy security. Accelerating the development of new energy industry is strategic choices of pulling domestic demands, cultivating new economic growth points, improving employment opportunities, and promoting economic and social sustainable developments. New energy mostly characterizes disadvantages of low energy density and decentralization, which are difficult to substitute for fossil energy on a large scale in the near future. More efforts will be needed in the aspects of technology, cost and management. In this paper, the development status and prospect of new energy were reviewed, and some suggestions were put forward based on the problems existed in the development process of new energy in China.