The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) issued the national twelfth five-year plan of science and technology development on July 12, 2011. The plan proposed to take the development driven by innovation as the basic task, and the transformation of science and technology into real productivity as the main direction. Beijing Municipality Key Laboratory of Distributed Energy System was officially established in the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics on July 15, 2011, under the organization of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (BMSTC).

As an important utilization method of new and renewable energy resources, distributed energy system is a significant direction cultivated and developed as the strategic new industry by the country in the twelfth five-year plan. With the depth development and utilization of by-product heat and pressure, and the development of the distributed and low-density energy, such as solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy and biomass energy, and the growing concern of environment friendly in heating and cooling technologies, more and urgent requirement was proposed for the distributed energy with comprehensive utilization of fossil and renewable energy. Distributed energy system provides new approach to the utilization of renewable energy in city, countryside, and the industry and agriculture processes, leading to the reduction of investment on energy system construction, the adjustment of the energy structure, the enhancement the energy utilization efficiency, and the mitigation of environmental pollution. 

Facing the national strategic industry of energy saving and environment protection, and requirement of energy saving and emission reduction in the highly energy-consuming industry, based on the theory of cascade utilization of energy and system integration technology, Beijing Municipality Key Laboratory of Distributed Energy System will conduct research on fundamental theory, cutting-edge problems and the demonstration project of the distributed energy system. The research covers advanced power cycle, utilization of mid- and low- temperature waste heat, small- and micro- scale gas turbine, comprehensive utilization of fossil and renewable energy, advanced energy storage technology, system integration in all condition and so on. In addition, the laboratory will construct a design and experiment platform of the key equipments and system integration, which will be open to public to attract advanced distributed energy system technology to be tested on this platform. The research group try to make a breakthrough in the system integration theory and utilization method of the distributed energy system, develop into the technology innovation resource of strategic new energy industry, and make contribution to the realization of energy saving and emission reduction, and the large-scale use of renewable energy.