China is an Asian developing nation. According to Focus Economics, China ranks behind the United States as the world’s second largest economy with a projected nominal GDP of 13.1 trillion USD (“The World's Top 10 Largest Economies.”). However, the nation still identifies as a developing country because of its large population approximated at about 1.3 billion people. Consequently, the Central Intelligence Agency places the country at 108th position globally, owing to its $16,700 GDP per capita. Moreover, the observed economic development stemmed from strategic economic policies that stimulated the nation’s manufacturing and construction industries, creating a global business hub (“The World's Top 10 Largest Economies.”). In particular, transformations began with the liberalization of the economy in the 1970s (“The World's Top 10 Largest Economies.”). The discussion below shows how China has become a global leader in renewable energy in an effort to meet the growing demand for energy in the country and become energy independent.
Discussion
During the early economic reform stages, China depended mainly on the production of clothing and footwear before branching to the lucrative market of electronics, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles. These advancements led to increased need for energy, making the country a global leader in the consumption of fossil fuels for energy production (“China – Oil and Gas.”). Available data reveals that in 2016, China consumed 11.5 million barrels of oil per day. Similarly, its total installed electricity capacity increased from 1,247 to 1,360 GW between 2013 and 2014 (Ligang et al. 449). These figures are set to continue to increase in relation to the expected doubling of energy consumption over the next two decades (“Learning from China”).
Currently, approximately 75% of all energy produced in China is from non-renewable sources. With the large demands of power, this means that China is the single largest emitter of green-house gases in the world. Power production is the single largest polluter of the environment in China. For many years, major cities in the country including the capital Beijing and the industrial capital Shanghai have experienced very poor air quality. The dependence on non-renewable energy sources also means that the country is dependent on other countries for energy production. For example, China consumes approximately 11.2 million barrels per day with local production estimated at 4 million barrels per day. This means that the country depends on other countries for its energy production.
In order to address the chronic pollution problems experienced in the country and become less reliant on foreign countries for its energy needs, China has invested heavily in renewable sources of energy. Over the last few years, China has surpassed traditional powerhouses in renewable energy production such as the United States in solar power and Germany in wind power. With future growth expected in the country, it is still going to be heavily reliant on non-renewable sources of energy. However, China intends to ensure that renewable energy sources contribute 30% of its energy mix by the year 2030 and purpose to increase this figure in the future. The subsequent evaluation examines the current production levels of renewable energy in China.
Production Levels: Renewable Energy
Over the last decade, China has diversified its energy needs to incorporate renewable sources with 77% of all power investments going to this sector (Brink Asia Editorial Staff). These shifts have resulted in the developing nation having the highest electricity production from renewable sources pegged at 1523 TWh. Particularly, in 2017, renewable sources of energy accounted for 36.6 % of total installed capacity for energy production (Dong and Ye). This figure should reach and exceed the 50% mark by 2030 (Dong and Ye).
In addition, the broadening of energy sources in China draws from the need to reduce carbon emissions as well as providing energy security (Dong and Ye). China leads in terms of carbon emissions from coal and petroleum. Here, issues such as air pollution lead to almost 400,000 premature deaths annually.
Hydroelectric Power. Hydroelectric power is the largest source of renewable energy in the country. According to Myers, in 2012, China produced more than 856 billion kilowatt hours of electricity (approximately 98,000 MW), which was double the next biggest producer of hydroelectric power in the world, Brazil, whose production stood at 411.2 billion kilowatt hours. In 2015, cumulative capacity deployments in hydropower stood at 267,099 MW, a figure set to increase to 454,000 MW by 2030 (Han et al. 9). The total potential exploitable hydroelectric power in the country is estimated at 542 GW which leaves a lot of room for development in the sector (Han et al. 4). The abundance of the resources to support hydroelectric power generation has made this source an attractive alternative for coal.
Apart from providing clean power, hydroelectricity offers China energy independence. This is as opposed to coal where imports are made from the global market. Despite the high installed capacity, China’s hydroelectric power plants are less efficient than other installations in the world due to fluctuations in rainfall patterns and pace of construction. China is home to 2 of the 10 largest hydroelectric power plants in the world with the largest in terms of installed capacity being the Three-Gorges dam with a capacity of 22,500MW that became fully operational in 2012 (Ottinger, 39).
Wind Power. According to Nick, wind power is the second largest source of renewable energy in China with an estimated installed capacity of 188GW. In the year 2017 alone, the country added over 19 GW of wind power to the national grid. From his analysis, Nick demonstrates that the installed capacity in china is significantly higher than other wind power producing countries such as the United States with a total installed capacity of 89 GW, Germany at 56GW, India at 32.9 GW and the United Kingdom at 17.9 GW total.
The growth of wind-generated power is part of government policy that intends to produce at least 15% of all its energy needs from renewable sources by the year 2020. To achieve this, the government has encouraged the development of domestic technology. Therefore, majority of wind power will be produced by locally manufactured turbines. Here, manufacturers receive 50% discounts on value added taxes as a means of spurring innovation (Han et al. 5). However, the curtailment of wind energy sources due to grid constrains led to estimated losses of RMB18.7 billion or USD 2.8 billion in 2016 (Dong and Ye). This is because the uptake of wind power has not been able to keep up with the growth in production due to constraints experienced in the grid. As a result, a significant percentage of wind power production remains unused.
Solar Energy. In 2017, China was ranked as the global leader in solar energy production with an installed capacity of 130GW. This was significantly higher than the second ranked country in the world, the United States with a capacity of 85GW. Longman points out that the Chinese figure represented an 81% growth in capacity from 2016 figures. This growth shows the strides that China as a country has made in an attempt to reach its target of producing at least 20% of its power from renewable sources by the year 2030 (Longman).
China is the world’s largest manufacturer of photovoltaic cells. Over the years, the country has surpassed traditional solar energy powerhouses such as Germany to become the global leader in solar energy production (Brink Asia Editorial Staff). As a result, China has the highest production potential set between 6,900 and 70,100 TWh (Han et al. 4). Government policies also seek to stimulate the sector with a plan to increase installed capacity by 150 GWe (Han et al. 4). With this projected course, the country should have a cumulative capacity deployment of about 1 million MW by 2030 up from 43,180 MW in 2015 (Han et al. 9).
Apart from large-scale solar farms, China also has a high penetration of decentralized solar panels that provide energy in many rural areas. The cost of photovoltaic panels has decreased drastically because of government incentives offering 50% discounts on value added taxes (Han et al. 5). Moreover, China also has the world’s largest installed capacity of thermal solar making up 70% of the world’s solar thermal capacity (Parkes 73). This source of power mainly finds use in heating operations that require bulk energy (Dong and Ye).
Biomass and Bio Fuels. China is the third largest producer of ethanol-based bio-fuels. The nation currently stands behind the United States and Brazil (“China sets 2020 target for nationwide ethanol use to cut corn stocks”). In terms of biomass, the country possesses a generation capacity of between 1500 to 1750 TWh, annually (Han et al. 4). As per government policy, ethanol should account for 10% of total automotive fuel consumption (“China sets 2020 target for nationwide ethanol use to cut corn stocks”). Although less than 1% of the country’s total grain goes into the production of ethanol-based bio-fuels, stakeholders have raised concerns over the potential conflict between demand for food and fuel in the future.
Geothermal Energy. Zhang and Qinhong indicate that although geothermal resources are widely available throughout the country, it remains one of the most underexploited sources of energy (452). Geothermal electricity is produced in Tibet, an autonomous region, Yunnan Province and Taiwan Island (Zhang and Qinhong 452). The total installed geothermal electricity production in some of the high production regions ranges between 30 to 100 MW (Zhang and Qinhong 455). However, most of the underutilized geothermal energy finds use in bathing, room heating, and aquaculture (Zhang and Qinhong 462).
Nuclear Power. China is the third largest nuclear power producer in the world producing 26GW of its power from nuclear sources. This is behind the United States which produces 92GW and France which produces 43 GW from nuclear. Han et al. writes that, in 2014, China had 36 nuclear power stations in operation, 21 under construction and more about to begin construction (4). By September 2018, this figure was expected to increase to 45 operational nuclear power plants and 15 under construction with a total capacity of 33.6 GWe (World Nuclear Association). This shows that China has the fastest growing nuclear energy sector in the world.
The Chinese government seeks to increase this capacity to between 400 and 500 GWe by 2050 through its energy reforms (World Nuclear Association). Currently, nuclear power generation accounts for 3% of total electricity production in the country. The government policy aims to increase this to 6% of total electricity production by the year 2020. Moreover, China uses advanced pressurized water reactors that are more efficient than the older models used by the United States and France (World Nuclear Association). As a result, the country is able to get more energy from its power plants compared to other countries using older technologies. However, the Fukushima-Daichi nuclear incident in Japan resulted in a slowdown in the approval of new nuclear power plants as well as increased safety reviews of the existing ones (World Nuclear Association).
Conclusion
In conclusion, China relies on both renewable and non-renewable sources of energy.
Despite the massive investment and very fast growth in installed renewable energy capacity, it still contributes only 25% to the total energy mix of the country. The country aims for 30% renewable energy contribution to the country’s energy mix by the year 2030. Acknowledging the heavy dependence on coal and petroleum, the country’s government now invests heavily in renewable sources of energy such as hydrothermal, wind, solar, nuclear power among others, and aims at shifting reliance on electricity production to these resources. China, additionally, looks towards reduction of carbon emissions and air pollution by use of these alternate energy sources. Therefore, the development of renewable sources of energy seeks to make the country energy independent by bolstering direction power injections into the grid.