China announced last week that it is planning to invest $361 billion in renewable energy development during the 5-year period between 2016 and 2020. The breakdown is as follows: 40% will go to solar power, 28% to wind, 20% to hydro, and the remainder to tidal, geothermal and biomass. The plan is expected to create 13 million new clean energy jobs. It puts China on schedule to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals from the 2014 U. S.-China treaty five years ahead of time.
Even so, China’s situation illustrates the heavy role that inertia plays in energy consumption. By 2020, renewables are expected to account for only 15% of its total energy, with coal still acounting for more than half.
China’s heavy reliance on coal has exacted serious economic and social costs due to hazardous smog. Last year, as part of their “war on pollution,” the government closed 335 factories and retired 400,000 high-polluting vehicles from the roads. This is starting to pay off, since last year Beijing reported having 198 “blue sky days,” up from just 12 in 2015.
China’s new investments will make it the world’s dominant producer of renewable energy. They now have five of the six largest manufacturers of solar panels, the largest manufacturer of wind turbines, and the largest producer of lithium ion batteries. The Chinese have also proposed a plan for an international green energy grid, with companies from Japan, Russia and South Korea scheduled to participate. The grid is based on the principle that, although sunshine and wind are intermittent at any one place, with a large enough grid, energy can be transfered one location to another to meet everyone’s needs.
Meanwhile, the U. S. is planning to continue to ignore both climate science and economic reality by increasing our reliance on fossil fuels, even as the President-elect makes blatantly false statements about renewable energy.
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