China needs to harness its wind energy now more than ever.
Last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a chart describing the coal consumption of China compared to the rest of the world. The verdict: as seen below: China uses almost as much coal as all the countries in the world combined. It’s a grim-looking chart, for sure, considering the exponential rate of China’s coal use in a period of just ten years.
Chart from http://www.eia.gov/
And yet coal-fired plants continue to crop up in China. Last November, a report of the World Resources Institute estimated some 360 proposed coal plants in the country. (To be fair, strict guidelines by the government require that new plants displace older, inefficient ones, although many illegal plants still get built.)
Burning coal contributes almost half of the total carbon emission worldwide.
If there’s anything the recent blanket of smog in Beijing showed China, it’s that they need to get their act together. Right now, wind energy is suddenly on top of everyone’s agenda. Last January 9, according to Ecoseed.org, three wind power projects were approved in the country, with a total investment of 1.35 billion yuan. Will all this focus on wind energy, it’s not surprising how China surpassed the United States in wind power generation in 2009, besting the U.S.’s 10,000 megawatts with 13,000.
A wind turbine gets installed in China.
But let’s not get too focused on competition, because China should be doing this for its own sake and the rest of the world, not out of any will to win some race. China has long been aware of its own excesses and its harsh effects on the environment. As a matter of fact, its Twelfth Five-Year plan (2011-2015) clearly outlines a more intensive focus on renewable sources of energy such as nuclear, solar, and biomass. And of course wind power, too, considering the country’s long stretches of coastline, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), could provide as much as 100 to 200 GW.
Ever since the first wind turbine in China was built thirteen years ago, wind power has steadily gained ground in the country, growing from 344 megawatts in 2000 to 44,733 MW in 2010. This year, it’s targeting anywhere from 16 to 18 gigawatts, and hopefully by 2015, that number would have reached 100 gigawatts.
Not everything is smooth-sailing though. Some wind farms still remain “unplugged” from the grid. In 2011, about 25{e3829ec1db02d54faaf9fa2de0d48db26af01d7a7944a63c3b26976124791cab} of China’s wind power wasn’t put to good use at all.
There’s the combined issues of overcapacity of wind turbines, grid connection barriers, trade protectionism, energy losses during transmission, and a general lack of planning by local governments and state-owned power companies eager only to get involved in the rapidly-growing wind energy sector.
And since we are such creature of habits, a coal plant still remains the easiest way to get business done.
One thing is for sure. China needs to snap out of its over-dependence on coal and turn to clean, renewable energy. That, or choke in a sea of smog of its own doing.
