Clean Energy Technology Development and Integration Pathways toward Carbon Neutrality: A Comprehensive Review
Abstract
This review outlines pathways for clean energy technologies toward carbon neutrality, focusing on global progress and China's strategies. It begins with the necessity of transforming energy systems, highlighting challenges from integrating variable renewables like wind and solar, such as grid stability and flexibility needs. It then examines key technologies-solar, wind, hydropower, marine, biomass, hydrogen, nuclear, and emerging options like artificial photosynthesis and direct air capture-detailing their status and bottlenecks. A core section explores integration pathways: multi-energy complementary systems, energy storage (electrochemical, hydrogen), smart grids, microgrids, and cross-sectoral decarbonization (power, transport, buildings, industry). The review also evaluates supporting frameworks, including carbon markets, green finance, social acceptance, just transition principles, standards, and international cooperation. Finally, it summarizes major challenges-technological gaps, regional disparities, and climate impacts on resilience-and discusses future directions like controlled nuclear fusion, advanced artificial photosynthesis, and deep digital integration to build a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient modern energy system.