Since 2004, electricity consumption in China has been growing at an unprecedented rate due to the rapid growth of industrial sectors. A serious shortage of electricity supply during 2005 affected the work of many Chinese companies. Since then, China has been investing very aggressively in electricity supply to meet industrial demand and thereby ensure economic growth. Installed electricity production capacities in China amounted to 443GV at the end of 2004 and 793GV at the end of 2008. The increase in these four years is approximately one-third of the total capacity of the United States, or 1.4 times the total capacity of Japan. All energy then came from so-called "dirty" sources.
China still today alone produces about 1/3 of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.
Behind it are the USA with around 15%, India with 7%, Russia with 5%, Japan with 3%, while other economies account for less than 2%. The Chinese government neglected the problem of ecology for a long time because its main goal was the economic development of the country, which is why the largest Chinese cities were also among the most polluted in the world, especially when it comes to smog.
China, Yantai city, smog - Image by Götz Friedrich from Pixabay
For years, China has been under pressure to speed up the green transformation in the name of the world's climate, to the detriment of its economic development. However, when you look at the total emissions of all countries in the world since they can be measured, according to data from Oxford University, Europe has so far produced 30 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, the United States about 25%, and China only about 13.7%. The conclusion is that when China entered the rapid development phase, the emissions of harmful gases in the atmosphere were already huge and the wheel of climate change started much earlier.
For this reason, Chinese officials do not want to make major concessions, considering that they also deserve the right to the "dirty" and energy-cheaper phase of development, which Western countries had earlier in history.
However, this is not a problem that China is sweeping under the carpet, quite the opposite. They also know that in 2013, in the Chinese city of Harbin, atmospheric pollution was 40 times higher than allowed, and that in that year China was home to 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, and the biggest cause is the heavy reliance on coal in the production of electricity , outdated technology and a large number of cars.
China's smog-free development plans
China defines its development plans through five-year plans. Five-year plans are initiatives for the social and economic development of the country published by the Chinese Communist Party since 1953. Planning is a key feature of China's economy, and the plan contains detailed guidelines for the country's economic development. The plans determine all areas, from demographic development to the conquest of space. We will focus on the analysis of the development of the energy sector.
One of the first steps towards reducing pollution was presented as one of the goals of the 11th five-year plan (2006-2010), and the plan envisages that the total release of major pollutants will be reduced by 20% in the next five years. This was done by shutting down over 2,000 factories that were major polluters. But what is important is that starting from the 11th plan, each subsequent five-year plan of China aimed to move China away from energy "dirty" energy production and highlighted the importance of investing in low-carbon technologies as a strategic industry emerging, especially in the fields of wind and solar energy.
This results in the fact that already at the beginning of the twelve-year plan, China has emerged as a world leader in renewable energy development technology.
The twelfth five-year plan aimed for the use of renewable energy sources to be at the level of 11.4% of total energy consumption during 2011-2015. The plan also envisaged the development of an ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission system to increase the integration of renewable energy from the point of production to the point of consumption. The Thirteenth Plan increased China's target for using non-fossil energy sources to 15% in 2016–2020. So that in September 2020, President Xi Jinping proposed the goal of making China carbon neutral by 2060.
Investment in environmentally friendly energy sources goes hand in hand with liberating China from importing coal and oil. Today, China is the world's largest importer of these energy sources. And the development of renewable energy sources also means reducing the state's dependence on their import. According to estimates from 2016, China is the fourth country in the world in terms of coal reserves on its territory in the amount of 149,818 million tons. But those reserves are equal to 34.7 of annual consumption. This means that the country has coal for another 35 years, which is why it is massively imported today.
The situation is even worse with oil, where China has reserves equivalent to 5.4 times its annual consumption. Which means that without imports, it would have oil left for about 5 more years (at the level of current consumption from 2016 and excluding unproven new deposits).
This means that China is threatened when it comes to energy, and such a country he must not allow.
Development of renewable energy sources
Development of solar systems in China
China has been the largest and fastest growing producer of renewable energy sources in the world for more than a decade, all thanks to the accelerated growth primarily of solar and wind energy capacity in recent years.
Solar energy production has grown exponentially over the years, reaching 330TWh in 2021. Wind energy is the second most important renewable energy for China. From 2014 to 2021, cumulative installed wind power capacity tripled to nearly 282 gigawatts. In addition, from 2004 to 2021, domestic hydropower consumption has more than tripled.
It is estimated that in 2023 alone, China will have built as much new solar capacity as the total installed capacity in the US.
In 2020, China committed to having 1,200 GW from renewable sources by 2030, but is on track to meet that goal five years early. Analysts say China could have as much as 1,000 GW from solar alone by the end of 2026, out of the 11,000 GW needed globally to meet Paris Agreement targets by 2030.
As a leading player in the world's solar markets, China's photovoltaic power generation sector has become much more of a profitable industry in its own right than one that exists solely for environmental reasons.
Today, China is the world's largest supplier of renewable energy technologies and has more than 80% of the world's solar energy production capacity.
On an annual basis, China can produce 1,000GV of solar modules each year, which is currently double the world's demand.
This massive production leads to very low prices for solar panels and related components, which worries the US and other countries trying to expand domestic production. China has transformed from a producer to an innovator in the renewable energy industry and is likely to continue to significantly influence this market in the future.
The environmental movement and the transition to renewable energy sources also affected the auto industry. In the next article on our blog, we will analyze how the Chinese electric vehicle industry has developed and why China is the world leader in the production of electric vehicles today.