An open coal mine near Hailar, Inner Mongolia.
Image: Flickr/HerryLawford
In the policy tug of war between trying to avoid a further slowdown of economic growth and at the same time cutting emissions, the Chinese government will likely stay away from making a clear choice between the two.
Figures help illustrate the situation. A circular of the State Council, or the Cabinet of China, showed in August that more than $370 billion would be invested to cut pollution by reducing the use of 300 million tons of standard coal by 2015.
Undermining the impact of the $370 billion national expenditure is another string of numbers.
According to a recent report from the environmental group Greenpeace, the Chinese government will construct 16 coal power plants, mostly in the western part of the country, in the next three years. By 2015, the country plans to increase its coal production by 2.2 billion tons a year.
The total number of coal production centers that would be developed during China's 12th five-year plan, from 2011 to 2015, is, in fact, higher than during the previous five-year plan (2006 to 2010), when 13 of the emission sources were built.
In order to connect the country, railroads are needed. Transporting coal, which is a lucrative business alongside the high demand, motivates provincial governments and companies to build capital-intensive infrastructure.
"Investing in infrastructure is the safest way to boost economy," said Kevin Jianjun Tu, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, based in Washington, D.C., where he leads the China energy and climate program. "And the transportation of coal accounts for more than 50 percent in the overall freight business."
Building more railroads
Shenhua Group, one of the largest state-owned coal producers in China, will invest about $1.6 billion to develop six coal railway transportation lines in Inner Mongolia. Other coal producers, such as China Coal and Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group, are also reportedly placing more rail tracks in western Inner Mongolia this year.
Other provincial governments that are joining in include the autonomous Xinjiang region in the southwest. An official city government website revealed that the Xinjiang government plans to pour as much as $2 billion into constructing railways this year alone.
Yongxuan Wang, deputy chief of the Transport Department of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said the Xinjiang government aims to export 50 million tons of coal to the eastern part of the country by 2015. That's almost seven times higher than in 2010.
In the past, Shanxi, a province located in the north, produced 25 percent of total coal mined in China. Because its resources are running out, the output from Inner Mongolia has outpaced this once-key mining center in recent years. On the same note, the Chinese government discovered a rich coal reserve in Xinjiang.
"The Chinese government didn't explore the coal resources in the west previously because consumption was mainly concentrated on the [wealthier] east coast and the transportation costs were high," said Qingwei Sun, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace in Beijing. "Now, the coal resources in the east are depleted, and the government has got to think of a way to broaden the supply."
Renewable energy goals shrink
Since the beginning of 2000, when China was preparing to host the Olympics, the Chinese government has been exploring alternative resources to make sure the country's air quality meets the international standard.
However, the bumpy road of scouting for alternative energy options suggests an aggressive shift from coal to something else is easier said than done.
In fact, production capacities for both photovoltaic modules, which are used to assemble solar panels, and wind turbines have recorded impressive growth over the past four years. But only about 5 percent of the products are used domestically, and the rest are exported to Europe and America.
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18 Comments
Add CommentIs anyone suprised that Chinese CO2 emissions will continue to rise for years and years? So will emissions from India, Pakistan, and all other developing countries.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat, if somewhat depressing article. I gave a presentation on natural gas, fracking and concerns regarding its environmental risks recently to a group of Chinese executives from a company with coal holdings. They were an attentive group. If gas can supplant coal as it has here in the US, then Godspeed. Eventually - and hopefully sooner rather than later - the Chinese are going to be using a lot more of the PV modules and wind turbines they manufacture. (See NY Times today on PV glut in China.)
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEven with new reserves China will run out of coal in less than 30 yrs. Sadly by then their coal which is the worst quality, polluting in the world they wil have poisoned themselves and others including the US not even including CO2.
They need to put their production capacity into producing home, building size RE and make the loans to homeowners nessasary to get it done. Plus they need to up the quality so these rather simple machines last 25-50 yrs.
These with solar PV have paybacks in 2-5 yrs and much faster if coal, etc pollution costs are added in. Actually the same can be said for the US though we have in the last 5 yrs cut coal by 45% and dropping fast thankfully.
They've been doing that in Germany with a new-holds-barred massively funded program for the past 20yrs. And their Coal is worse than China's. Now Germany just commissioned a giant 2200 MWe, strip-mined lignite dirt-burner, 1st of 22 more planned to supply their REAL energy needs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo much for Renewable Energy SCAMs - a dismal failure.
"..the US though we have in the last 5 yrs cut coal by 45% and dropping fast.."
Bull. Another famous Jerry "I just make numbers up" stat.
USA Energy production, note Coal sudden dip in 2008 coincident with George "Oil Stooge" Bush's economic meltdown and simultaneous major NG price drop.
www.iea.org/stats/pdf_graphs/USPROD.pdf
www.iea.org/stats/pdf_graphs/USELEC.pdf
Note that the Europe, which is paying over $10/mmbtu for NG is NOT switching to NG but is on a Coal power building binge, because they can't afford to generate with that expensive NG. The idiots in the US gov't are still spouting Big Oil's propaganda that their is lot's of domestic NG - don't worry, be happy, until those shiny new NG power plants and transmission infrastructure must be fed with expensive World Price LNG, imported from the Middle East at $15-25/mmBtu not the current $2-3/mmBtu they are now paying. With production cost of the only serious new supply, Shale Gas hovering around $8/mmBtu.
"...Eventually - and hopefully sooner rather than later - the Chinese are going to be using a lot more of the PV modules and wind turbines.."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah, right. That will do lots. They use domestically 5% of the Solar & Wind they sell to suckers in the USA & Europe. If it so viable why aren't they using it there? So yep, it does look real bad them just exporting and not using their own Solar & Wind garbage, so they gotta increase domestic installations. Woopedy f'in do, they will increase Solar & Wind Energy from ZIP to NIL.
For their REAL new green Energy supply they are building conventional Hydro and Nuclear.
China cuts wind, solar development to push nuclear and hydro:
www.waterpowermagazine.com/story.asp?sectionCode=130&storyCode=2062180
And including methane leakage, Shale Gas is every bit as bad as Coal, with methane 72X the GHG potential of CO2:
www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/news
/attachments/Howarth-EtAl-2011.pdf
theenergycollective.com/david-lewis/48209/epa-confirms-high-natural-gas-leakage-rates
DWBd picking unrelated bull doesn't change things.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI doubt RE owners in Germany think their profitable units are failures. And now PV panels is only 20% of the cost it was 5 yrs ago so even without subsidies it's cost effective but like coal, nuke, hydro, it does have them.
Just because some are stupid like Germany cutting nukes has little impact except there.
They don't want to do NG because it's controlled by the Russians. No?
You don't mention methane has a short life in the atmosphere I see. Plus Cornell has been in the pockets of big energy for decades. NG fracking won't get away with methane releases much longer as they are brought under regulations.
It's home/building owners that will switch because of economics now that PV is about $1k/kw as their electric prices skyrocket both in Germany, China and most of the world.
You can say what you want but basic econo 101 will rule and the fact that most RE doesn't require fuels means they will win out whether it's clean or not. Plus most is more simple than a moped, No?
In the US coal has dropped from 60% to 32% of US electric, No? Deal with it.
While much of China's stuff is cr-p, most PV is reasonably good and again at $1k/kw for panels over 5 yrs it's less than buying coal power. Don't forget retail electricity is 2-3x's wholesale so payback is that much faster.
Many Chinese already do solar hot water which they also are reasonable with.
And I'm building my new cabin now that with just $1.5k worth of PV gives me 25 yrs of power off grid though it's available, including both A/C and charging my EV's as both are very eff, they do the job well.
Battery storage is only $15/yr/kwhr and I only need 6kwhrs. I have my EV batteries as back up along with the rarely used unlimited rang alternator.
The tech is here just it's only recently become cost effective in PV though Wind always has since small wind was prefected for farms in the 30's. Only subsidized grid power drove it from the market then but that is changing as utility monopolies are being dismantled.
Here in Fla it's illegal to sell electricity for example unless you are a utility even to charge EV"s!!
It's only a matter of time before others figure this out so have fun paying your electric, gasoline bills while I'll be laughing at you all the way to the bank.
Just what do you pay in electric and gasoline/month DWBD?
Nope, the German situation speaks volumes about how China would fail miserably if they tried to replace Coal with Solar & Wind. Entirely relevant. The only unrelated bull is jerry incessantly showing off his Do-It-Your-Self specials as meaningful example for a entire nation state's energy quandary.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDIY's can usually beat out a commercial or large installation by bargain hunting for surplus, salvage and doing lots of home made with no labor cost included. Give me some low-enriched uranium and I'll supply all my heat, power and transportation energy a whole lot cheaper than Jerry's Solar specials.
At one time low-enriched uranium was natural uranium, so 2 billion years ago in one location in Gabon, 16 natural nuclear reactors operated, running at about 100kwth ea, for some 1/2 million years - with NO containment. Greenpeace figures the entire Earth should have blown up. Water percolated into the concentrated uranium ores, acted as a neutron moderator, the fission chain reaction started, water was boiled off, the reaction stopped until more water percolated into the ores. Sounds pretty simple-minded to me.
"..US coal has dropped from 60% to 32% of US electric.."
Nope. Coal consumption for electric power generation peaked at 1045 mtons in 2008 down to 929 mtons in 2011 for an 11% reduction, not the 45% you claimed. And Coal has dropped from 51% or Electricity Production 5 yrs ago to 42% at present - latest EIA data. A drop of 18% not the 45% drop you claim.
So avg installation cost of Solar PV in Florida, according to the NREL is $7.93 per watt, over $50k per kwavg output. An outrageous cost.
"..again at $1k/kw for panels over 5 yrs it's less.."
It don't matter if the panels are zero cost its the total installation cost that counts. And panel prices are jumping do to import duties imposed in USA & Europe, after determining that China was dumping the panels at below manufacturing cost. So even the largest best commercial installations in Florida, before the price increases, and including huge loan guarantees, were $3.54 per wattpk and $22.40 per wattavg. Coal is ~$3-5 per watt avg plus another 3 cents per kw for O&M/fuel, 1/3rd the Solar cost before you include the high grid costs of Solar. Retail cost is only relevant if you happen to be in a place where they allow you to use the grid as a free giant battery bank and pay you retail for power that you generate, a huge subsidy for mostly the wealthy.
You're Solar would be worthless where I am, most energy demand is in Winter and Solar is close to NIL then.
dwbd you are a pip !!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst you numbers are way out of date. I get mine directly from PennEnergy the best source of various energy sectors by the utilities themselves. Maybe you should get their newsletters so you actually know something Over the last few months coal for electric use has dropped to 32%. deal with it.
As for your coal figures that includes Met coal for steelmaking and the contracts that are forcing utilities to take the coal even though they can't use it so it's being stockpiled. Also it includes a large increase in coal exports. And coal mines are closing fast along with even more coal powerplants, Deal with it.
Germany never was replacing coal with solar because no one fuel could ever supply everything, it's just a straw man people who can't find real facts.
You are going to have your own reactor !! Yeah right ;^P
Anyone can get PV in Fla for far less than your old numbers. Just order what you need from sunelec.com or other low cost supplier for $2/wt grid tie all included parts and hire someone locally to install, wire them up. No DIY at all at under $3/wt which between Fed tax credit and Fla utility credits, it's on the same website it's almost if not completely free!! Deal with it.
Plus soon plug and play units will be available wherre you just set it up in the yard, roof, etc and plug it into any outlet. So much for high install costs.
Since you are up north both wind and/or biomass can solve your energy needs bbut well done solar along with a decently designed, insulated home can work quite well. PV works better when cold and cold air is more clear as less water vapor. For solar heat check out vaccum tube collectors or others ones made for it.
And please stop your solar cost bull as it has no basis in reality but trying to gin the numbers like most of your other ones. You should be ashamed of yourself for them. Why do you tell such lies?
So keep on with your delusions and lies while I laugh all the way to the bank paying almost nothing for either electricity or gasoline.
Again what do you pay/month for home, transport energy?
"..Battery storage is only $15/yr/kwhr and I only need 6kwhrs..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBull, decent Flooded Lead-Acid are running > $150 per kwh for max 5 yr life is $30/yr/kwh-NOMINAL. Then you have to consider a charging energy efficiency of <60% so that goes up to $50/yr/kwh-effective and if you are using them for proper home daily power usage that is one cycle per day, that's 1800 cycles in 5 yrs, you would be limited to a 25% Depth-of-Discharge with the $150/kwh FLA batteries, so that pushes the cost up to $200/yr/kwh-real.
And an avg home at 31 kwh/day would need ~15 kwpk of Solar Panels and 165 kwh of FLA batteries. So say 15k x $5/watt installed plus 165 x $150 = a mere $100,000! And replace those $25,000 in batteries every 5 years. I think I will stick to the utility.
"..Over the last few months coal for electric use has dropped to 32%.."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBull, show us your link. And no my numbers were for Coal use for Electricity Generation, latest EIA data, read it and weep:
www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/showtext.cfm?t=ptb0802c
www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/showtext.cfm?t=ptb0703
"..No DIY at all at under $3/wt.."
Bull, you have shipping and all sorts of prep work and permitting etc to look after even if you can pay some high school kid to do the rest for $3/hr and still pay a licensed electrician to do the final hookup, will easily bring that up to $4/kwpk. And if it's so easy as you claim why is the avg 2012 installation cost in the USA $5.83 per kwpk according to the NREL. It is irrelevant what some people can do, what is relevant is what the avg installation costs.
And yeah, for people who actually have homes, most don't, in good areas, with massive state subsidies, it indeed may pay for a homeowner. 10's of $thousands stolen from the pockets of the poor to pay the wealthy for a ridiculous form of power generation, at >5X the cost of alternatives.
"..wind and/or biomass can solve your energy.."
Bull, Wind wouldn't do zip and biomass isn't even close to practical.
"..while I laugh all the way to the bank paying almost nothing for either electricity or gasoline.."
As I said, and repeat again & again, a good DIY'er can undercut the utility, under the right conditions but that is not relevant for any broad discussion of supplying the life-giving energy needs of any industrial civilization. And without that industrial civilization, run on Oil, Coal, Gas, Hydro & Nuclear, there would be no Solar PV for you, no batteries, no police or armies to protect your home from roving bandits who would take everything you have, no health care or education. An avg family of four in the USA, add one retiree and one disabled/non-working and that's a 66 kw continuous avg energy consumption. Tell us how you are gonna supply that without bankrupting the entire nation with your mickey mouse renewable specials?
Nuclear energy is not cheap. Here in France where fossil fuels are taxed, nuclear energy is still the most expensive electricity source.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdwbd you are a sad person it seems. Don't you have a life?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI said my piece and a real life. Deal with it and real life, not your sad twisted version of it. Bye
dwbd you need a life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd one has to notice you still haven't answered the question, What do you pay/month for home and transport energy? Why? Scared?
I pay lot's because there is no viable alternative where I live, except Nuclear, and they won't sell me the low enriched uranium I need for my home nuclear reactor which will supply ALL of my energy needs on a thimble full of uranium fuel every year. Only alternative is to build a particle accelerator with spillation target and blast a dime sized piece of thorium, which would be quite capable of supplying my home's Energy needs for a couple years. Curious how these products are "unavailable" even on the small utility scale. Big Oil just LUVs that restriction.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDiscussing home DIY'ers energy systems is indeed an interesting topic, and undoubtedly jerry has done a fine job down there in an ideal location in florida with his home solar and free telecom battery packs and home built EV's, all financed with corn squeezings on the bootleg market, which is why jerry is so pro-corn ethanol. But that is not the subject of this article, it is how do you supply the vast energy needs of a modern industrial nation. DIY'ers are only a miniscule blip of that.
What I see here at Eurostat for domestic electricity prices in normal range, including taxes, latest 2011, per kwh:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNuclear Lithuania: 12.21 eurocents, 15.9 usacents
Nuclear France: 14.2 eurocents, 18.4 usacents
Hydro Norway: 18.7 eurocents, 24.3 usacents
Renewables Germany: 25.3 eurocents, 32.9 usacents
Renewables Denmark: 29.8 eurocents, 38.7 usacents
appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/setupModifyTableLayout.do
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdwbd just where do you live that has so little RE resources? You don't have to be exact. Few places are as void as you say. And why not say what you pay/mo? Are you ashamed of being ripped off so badly and it'll prove my points?
Why do you want to be dependent on big energy? Even if they have cheap enegy soutrces they still make you pay 2-4x's as much. How smart is that.
And the cheapest power is from RE in the US, Hydro where in thw NW it's under $.07kwhr in most places last time I checked. Kind of blows your premise.
Next your Euro electric numbers prove that nukes are not the cheapest as in the US with only a fraction of nuke yet average $.11/kwhr. But we have come to learn you selectively give out facts.
Let's take Fla nukes please!! In Progress, now Duke energy they are paying $.03/kwhr extra with the highest rates in Fla for a new nuke plant that won't even be built for 10 yrs if ever. And it's going up to $.05.kwhr soon again for no electricity for it. Why? Plus they managed to break their existing reactor which likely will never be repaired. Sorry if I'm not thrilled about nukes and their costs.
I do cool things like RE because I like inventing and to be hinest, I'm cheap. Why is that the money one doesn't spend means one has to work less so can enjoy life and help others. Yours seem to be mad at everyone because they won't do what you demand they should!! You should think about talking to a professional about that.
By making my own power, actually I don't at the moment because my homesite is mostly good for conservation under a full old oak forest, I'm selling that so I can move to a better one living on the water again where for $1,500 in PV gives me 25 yrs of all the power I need. It gives me a place to test my new wind and tidal generators before I put them up for sale to those who are tired of being screwed by big energy.
I'm presently running on RE RE bought from my utility and my bills are $22-$40/month for all my home A/C, heating, workshop, etc and transport needs. It's so low because I'm smart on how I do things which you seem to think is stupid while as I said I laugh all the way to the bank. Doesn't my way seem smarter to you? Why do you attack it?
Second part as I went over the limit,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI do this to test what actually works and I use used parts at times to keep costs down and advise others how they can do the same. And once my testing is done i'll be producing them, solar CSP, waste wood or anything that burns generators as turn key units. Is that bad or wrong? Or are you just jealous? Enquiring minds want to know. PS I don't need the money I'm just tired of the lies about RE and want to show everyone what lies they are.
Again I have fun, learn, do cool things and live on $200/mo in basic expenses leaving the rest to play, help others, invent/improve things. And you? Well your post speak for themselves.
Well I have to go finish a Zero energy self contained cabin powered by solar and conservation. I'm making a nice profit at sell it at $15k that a single person can live nearly free in which really says what a load of bull your posts are.
Because utilities won't do RE unless forced and then make you overpay it's now lower cost to make your own either by smartly doing it yourself or hiring it out.
Let's see your energy problems and let's solve them the smart way costing less than 5 yrs of your present energy bills but give you 20-50 yrs of almost free power afterwards. I'll be glad to help. Why not take advantage od that great nuke in the sky or one of it's byproducts?
Umm, we're dealing with COMMUNISTS here. Red China's people are only cogs in the Communist machine, not children of God who possess human rights. If they have to suffer and die to enrich their rulers, so be it.
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