2020 was a milestone in increasing energy production in China. China has commissioned new lignite plants that produce a total of about 38.4GW of electricity. China is the country that builds factories to increase the use of lignite for electricity generation while at the same time as a country invests most of the capital in RES.
by Trust Economics-https://trusteconomics.eu
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Reasons that prevent China from getting rid of coal
1. The main raw material for energy production in China is lignite, while it is the 9th country in the world in terms of unmined lignite reserves in its subsoil. According to the study of US Energy Information Administration (https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/CHN ) the sources of energy produced in China (2019) are 58% from lignite, 20% from petroleum and other liquids, 8% from hydroelectric sources, 8% from natural gas, 2% from nuclear power, and (5%) from REW but REW presents growing shares in China’s energy consumption.
2. China has pledged to peak carbon emissions by 2030, and then achieve the desired “carbon neutral” by 2060.
3. Due to the huge amounts of carbon in its subsoil it is less energy dependent on fuel and electricity from corresponding energy imports.
4. In 2020, China operated 7 new plants with a total production of 38.4GW of electricity when 1GW of the energy produced to be equivalent with the energy production of a nuclear reactor. China has three times the number of new factories in relation to the rest of the world.
5. In China they work 6m miners. Due to the implementation of restrictive measures to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 1/3 of this profession lost their jobs after the closure of the mines. A massive type of unemployment in this professional sector creates phobic syndromes in the Chinese government for massive social unrest.
6. Most RES electricity is generated in Western China.
The most energy-intensive regions are in East China. But China lacks a high-voltage grid to transport the green energy it produces. State Grid, the country’s largest electricity supplier, has announced it will invest $45 billion to connect RES energy to the national grid to repair this imbalance.
