To limit global warming to 1.5~2 ℃ above pre-industrial levels, worldwide countries have pledged to cut the CO2 emissions to nearly zero (or 'net zero') by the mid of 21 st century. Net zero requires a complete upgrading for the current energy system, since approx. 75% of GHG emissions result from today's energy sector. Fossil fuels are essential to supply approx. 80% of today's worldwide energy demand, and they are projected to play an indispensable role in an immediate timeframe. Carbon capture is reported as both an effective and scalable technology to decarbonize the fossil fuels-based energy sectors. Further conversion of captured CO2 to high-value products (or 'utilization') requires an excessive amount of energy to break its chemical bonds, because CO2 is thermodynamically highly stable. If the energy source is purely fossil fuels, carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is reported to cause more emissions than unabated fossil fuels. To address this challenge, it has been proposed to apply renewable energy to power the carbon utilization, thus forming 'power-to-X' (power refers to solar or wind renewable energy source; X refer to fuels or chemicals, such as methanol, H2, gasoline and polymers). However, it is complex to immediately scale up these systems due to two facts: (1) a prerequisite is the access to cheap renewable energy, which requires a considerably higher renewable power capacity than todays' installations for solar photovoltaics and wind turbines; (2) the intermittent renewable electricity requires either cheap battery systems or the feasibility for dynamic operation of the utilization processes. Further, several studies on hybrid systems, i.e. [CCU + renewable H2/electricity], lead to a conclusion that the inclusion of renewable energy sources are indispensable to achieve emissions reduction, and also the cost of the renewables is considered to be the limiting factor for the economic feasibility of hybrid systems. We anticipate that the involvement of renewables might underestimate the potential of CCU and mislead the hotspot identification for the CCU itself.