Report
of China`s Energy Mix
Introduction
As a fast
developing country, China requires vast amount of cheaper energy to remain a
high development speed (Boqiang Lin, 2010).
Actually, in China, coal is the cheapest solution to satisfy the large energy demand
of the economy development. Although transferring coal into electricity or
other form of energy creates the most carbon dioxide, it seems the only choice
at the moment for the Chinese government.
In
the graph of China energy consumption 2014 (Euan Mearns, 2015), the proportion of coal was
the largest with 66%. Oil consumption was 18%. Hydro power was 8% but more than
gas consumption which was 5%. Renewable energy took 2% of the total consumption.
Nuclear was only 1%. That explains the reason why it is difficult to reduce the
coal energy when it is actually supporting the economy. Hence, it is almost
impossible for the government to reduce the coal consumption in a very short
period.
By
seeing the graph of China’s Energy Consumption by Source, there was an extreme
increase at the year 2001. That moment was also the moment when China joined
the World Trade Organization (Gail
Tverberg, 2012). To fill in the shortage of the increasing demand of
energy, the rise of coal and oil consumption could be seen as natural. That is
because, in my opinion, it takes less response time to increase the volume of
production and import of coal and oil rather than other form of energy which
requires a long time for foundation construction.
Chinese
government is going to reduce the proportion of coal consumption step by step. The
most important part is to reduce the proportion of coal consumption. With the
energy shortage of reducing the coal, there is going to be an increase of
proportion of gas consumption significantly. (Chen Aizhu, 2014). Oil consumption will certainly rise at a
specific proportion. The reason is that China has become the second largest
customer of oil in 2014 (Enter Data,
2014). At the same time, the proportion of nuclear, wind and solar will
increase to a certain extent, respectively. Hydropower will also increase.
Generally,
renewable energy contains the solar, wind, hydro, ocean wave, etc. But with the
technologic limitation, ocean wave power is too difficult to use. At the meantime,
hydropower and the wind power also have their limitation respectively.
Critically, the entire capacity
China is able to exploit of hydropower is 402 million kW (Boqiang Lin, 2010). The wind power, according the Application of
Danish Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Technology in China published by McKinsey & Company, in China, is not
suggested more than 10% of the total electricity capacity. The nuclear power
considering the fogyism caused by technology progress is suggested a less than
90 million kW installed capacity by 2020.
Conclusion
China’s
energy structure is complex. The development is based on sufficient energy. The
reduction of carbon dioxide, without decreasing the economy rate, requires controlling
the proportion of coal consumption and replenishment of other form energy. Renewable
energy is one of the solutions. But to the consideration of Chinese government,
a more efficient and controllable energy structure strategy adjustment, which
will reduce greenhouse gases and ensure the speed of China’s economy
development at the same time, is operating.
Recommendation
In my
opinion, nuclear energy is the best choice for China. Because China has the
latest technology to use nuclear power. It will be beneficial to reduce the
amount of the nuclear warheads which is the material to make the nuclear power
reaction fuel rod.
Reference
Gail Tverberg.
"The close tie between energy consumption, employment, and
recession." (2012).
Chen Aizhu.
"ANALYSIS - China in "great Leap Forward" for Gas." THOMSON REUTERS. (2010).
"China’s
Nuclear Aspirations." Enter Data.
2014.
Ma Damien.
"Roles and Prospect of Nuclear Power in China's Energy Supply
Strategy." Paulson Institute. Jan.
2015.
Boqiang
Lin, Yao Xin, and Liu Xiying. "China's energy strategy adjustment under
energy conservation and carbon emission constraints." Social Sciences in China 31.2 (2010): 91-110.
Euan Mearns. "China’s Energy Demand May Not Increase
Until 2017." OILPRICE.COM. June 2015. Web.
