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| Fig. 1: In recent years, Beijing has reached deadly levels on the Air Quality Index (AQI). Efforts are being made to reverse these trends. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
In the past few decades, the world has seen China rise to the top of global leaderboards in terms of GDP output. But with its enormous technological and manufacturing boom, comes an even bigger cost. In 2017, China paced the planet by consuming over 2,700 million TOE (tons of oil equivalent) in just fossil fuels alone. This astonishing amount is more than the energy consumption of Europe and South America combined. While China is the most populous country in the world, fossil fuels account for a staggering 86% of the country's energy. In comparison, the United States, Canada and France only consume about 56%, 65%, and 54%, respectively in fossil fuels. China's largest reliance of non-renewable energy is coal, guzzling 1,892 million TOE. [1]
All of this non-renewable energy consumption has caused major health risks to its citizens. In the metropolitan areas, harmful air pollutants such as CO, NOx, and SOx, have caused significant health issues such as respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Using the Adjusted Human Capital approach - the official approach used to value health costs, - a total valuation due to morbidity and mortality sums up to a whopping 157 billion yuan. Although most of China's pollution comes from its cities, the whole population has also been affected. In the countryside, pollution from rapid urbanization has caused contaminated water supplies to over 115 million rural Chinese residents and approximately 11 billion yuan to fisheries and farms in the form of acid rain. [2] At this rate, China is in clear danger as many of its citizens have already started to feel the impacts of air pollution, water pollution, and agricultural scarcity (See Fig. 1).
Fortunately, China's government has acknowledged this huge dilemma and is currently working on massive multi-billion dollar programs to invest in renewable energy. In 2015, just under $103 billion USD - up 17% from last year - was used to fund clean energy alternatives such as hydropower, wind power, and biofuels. China's drive for renewables is not just domestic anymore; they have also invested globally, in countries all around the Pacific. [3]
The most notable form of renewable energy that China has taken advantage from is hydroelectric power. Using its large and abundant rivers, China boasts some of the largest dams in the world in terms of electrical capacity (See Fig. 2). The tens of thousands of dams accumulate over 550 TWh of energy every year; this totals to about 30% of the global hydroelectric power, but only 8.5% of China's power usage. [1,4] Plans have been made to construct more dams while also increasing their efficiency.
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| Fig. 2: China's Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River generates about 100 TWh per year. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
China's next most practical source of clean energy comes from wind energy. With vast amounts of land and an accessible coastline, China is a top candidate of wind power generators. Alongside the United States, China produced the second-most amount of electricity from wind across the globe in 2015. About 80% of the power is generated through on-land wind farms, while the other 20% of it comes from offshore farms. China is seriously seeking to expand in this industry, by maximizing its offshore wind energy production, with goals of reaching over 200 TWh by 2020. [4]
While not a renewable energy source, an alternative energy source that China must utilize more is nuclear power. In 2016, China generated just over 200 TWh which accounted for only 3.5% of the total national installed capacity. In just this little fraction of output, China eliminated 172 million tons of CO2, 580 thousand tons of SO2, and 480 thousand tons of NOx instead of using coal. [5]
China is a candidate to change the global expectation of alternative and renewable energy. However, as China's rapid urbanization keeps expanding to new heights, they must keep meeting new energy demands. One of the priorities that must be emphasized is infrastructure - in order to enhance efficiency and facilitate new developments. Many of these decisions will be shaped by political and economical factors. Awareness, along with government regulation must be utilized in order for the notion of clean energy to succeed.
© Alex Liang. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] "BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2018," British Petroleum, June 2018.
[2] "Cost of Pollution in China," The World Bank, February 2007 [Reproduced by permission of the World Bank].
[3] T. Buckley and S. Nicholas, "China's Global Renewable Energy Expansion," Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, January 2017.
[4] D. Timmons, J. M. Harris, and B. Roach, "The Economics of Renewable Energy," Global Development and Environment Institute, 2014.
[5] "China's Nuclear Energy Guide," China Nuclear Energy Association, 2017.
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