Rethinking the Ordos world-class super energy basin

Under the global energy transformation driven by the “dual-carbon” strategy, the Ordos Basin—a national strategic resource enrichment zone—is transitioning toward an integrated carbon-neutral energy system. This shift is critical for ensuring national energy security and promoting green development. Based on the new development phase since the “14th Five-Year Plan”, this paper re-evaluates the basin's resources, theories and technologies, and strategic positioning from the perspectives of “Energy Power”, “Whole-Energy Integrated System” theory, and “Energy Equivalent” concept. It comprehensively analyzes the resource foundation, technological readiness, strategic orientation, and implementation pathways for the basin's transformation from a fossil energy production base into a world-class “carbon-neutral super energy basin.” The study concludes that the Ordos Basin possesses unique advantages, including abundant fossil and renewable energy resources, excellent CO 2 source-sink matching, and well-developed infrastructure. It is recognized as a “triple-super” basin, encompassing a super fossil energy basin, a super new energy basin, and a super CCUS basin. By implementing the “Seven Major Projects”—clean production of billions of tons of coal, green production of hundreds of millions of tons of oil and gas, production of associated resources such as thousands of tons of uranium, installation of hundreds of gigawatts of wind and photovoltaic power, development of hundreds of millions of square meters of clean heating, industrialization of billions of tons of CCUS/CCS, and establishment of a national energy strategic reserve and regulation hub—the basin is expected to become a world-class demonstration project of a carbon-neutral super energy basin. This initiative will integrate secure energy supply, green and low-carbon transition, and coordinated regional development, providing a systematic pathway and a leading example and demonstration for China to accelerate the building of a new-type energy system and even for the green leap forward in the transition of resource-dependent regions worldwide.