Why China's Energy Megaprojects Matter To Us All

When many of us hear the words China and energy, we immediately think of coal power stations, polluting factories and cities full of smoke. And why not? It's by far the world's biggest emitter of carbon emissions, it consumes way more energy than any other country and whereas other big nations have agreed to phase out coal, China hasn't. Because of this, it's kind of become the lead villain in the fight against climate change, the one country that everyone says is to blame for this whole mess. Now, while that's understandable, it's not entirely accurate. Yes, China's fossil fuel use is astronomical but it's also the world's largest installer of renewable power, by some distance. And it's set to go much bigger. The country's leading the way in other clean energy technologies and the scale of its carbon cutting plans has taken many by surprise. So, is it time we were less harsh on China when it comes to energy? Or could this turn out to just be smoke and mirrors? When we say China produces more carbon emissions than anyone else, we really do mean it. In 2019, over a quarter of the world's entire greenhouse gases came from China. That's more than twice as much as the US in second place. The country now has over 1,000 coal power plants in operation, more than half the global total. From a global perspective, China is obviously the world's largest emitter of CO2 because of the very high reliance on coal and also massive emissions from its construction industry. Lauri Mulliverta is lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, based in Helsinki. Over the past decade, China's been responsible for two-thirds of the increasing global emissions. So that makes it very hard for global emissions to peak and decline without China's emissions growth at least slowing down. Although it now has a target of net zero carbon by 2060, that means reducing emissions as much as possible and balancing out the rest by removing carbon from the atmosphere, other big nations have said they'll do that quicker. You can understand then why China's seen by many as the leading cause of our current predicament. But there's another side to this story, and that's the enormity of China's renewable energy projects. For years now, the country has been the world's biggest generator of wind and solar power. In fact, it's in a whole league of its own and the gap is widening. In 2020, it added more wind power to its energy mix than the entire world did in 2019 the largest figure ever recorded. Solar power's also booming, with China responsible for around a third of the world's energy generated from the sun. But it isn't investing so much into renewables because of international pressure and the demand for yet more energy, although those are both key factors. China is obviously vulnerable to climate change, especially water resources, food security, which are central issues to the party and to the government. Now, while the overall capacity of China's renewable energy system may be astonishing, the individual projects are pretty immense too. Recently, the country completed construction of a 2.2 gigawatt solar plant in Qinghai, almost the biggest in the world by capacity, a record that's currently held by the Badla Solar Plant in India. There are also reports it could be massively expanded to 10 gigawatts, which would not just give it the top spot, but make it three times bigger than any other station on Earth today. Floating solar power, where panels are mounted to a buoyant platform, is another new area that China leads the way in. Some of the biggest installations in the world can be found right here. These are just a few examples of China's plans to build increasingly large renewable hubs. Rumours of a gigantic new 400-gigawatt wind and solar megaproject were seemingly confirmed by President Xi himself in October 2021, with a 100-gigawatt first phase already underway. Details of precisely where that's happening are unclear, but it's likely to be in the vast desert region to the west of the country, where the bulk of the other big farms are. That's one of the reasons why China's building so much more than everyone else. It has the space. Even though most of the energy is needed on the other side of the country, where the main cities and industrial centres are, it's not been too big a problem. Many other countries are struggling, like getting planning permits and environmental permits, especially for long-distance transmission lines, which tend to be very hard in Europe, many parts of the United States and so on. There is an advantage in having a centralised decision-making system that can override some of those challenges. Another reason why China's trying to be less reliant on coal is because it kind of has to be. Rises in coal prices have seen power plants lower their output so they don't lose money, which has led to severe blackouts and power shortages. Having more renewable energy in the mix would take some of the strain off the coal network. But despite all this, China's emissions continue to grow. Although it's said these will peak by 2030, that could still leave almost a decade more of rising fossil fuels, when other big economies are cutting theirs. China's still constructing coal plants too, adding around 40 gigawatts of new coal power in 2020 alone. But it has pledged to stop building them abroad in a move that could make a big difference to global emissions. There's no more international financing available for new coal. For countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, that have relied heavily on overseas financing to expand their coal fleet, that really means they have to have a serious rethink about their energy plans. It's not as if China's severing ties completely, leaving all these countries quite literally in the dark. Instead, it plans to offer similar support for clean energy, giving nations that struggle to transition away from fossil fuels a helping hand. All for a price, of course. Then there's China's ambition to become a leader in other areas of clean energy, such as battery storage, and technologies that are yet to be properly developed but show plenty of promise. The Inner Mongolia region, historically one of its largest coal mining areas, is where China plans to build a mega-plant for the production of green hydrogen, which could become the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Now, hydrogen becomes green when it's generated using 100% clean power, rather than coal or natural gas, and potential uses include fuel sales for vehicles and home heating. Several countries are in a race to master this technology, and you wouldn't bet against China being the one to do it. So, when you weigh everything up, does China deserve to be criticised in the way it is today, or is it a bit misunderstood? And perhaps more importantly, is it actually going to deliver on what it said it's going to do? The government will certainly make sure that they meet what they've pledged. So far, right now, what's in preparation is sectoral implementation plans for key sectors, such as steel, cement, non-ferrous metals, power, transport, and so on. And that's where we would hope to see some of that detail about how ambitious the targets are going to be over this decade, and that's really going to set the pace. While it's clear that many people aren't aware of the more positive stuff China's doing and the progress being made, it has a lot of work to do if it's going to meet those promises and have the finger of blame pointed elsewhere. Even though every country has a part to play in this, you can't help but feel that the battle to beat climate change is going to be won or lost in China. If you enjoyed this video and you want to learn more about where construction is headed, make sure you're subscribed to Tomorrow's Build.