China Going Green? Not Entirely

China is quickly moving ahead with wind, solar, and nuclear power plants to satiate the growing demand for power. The New York Times reports that the Chinese government is increasing its figures for installed wind power projects and will likely have installed 30,000MW of wind power projects by next year, which was the target for 2020.

That said, the Chinese aren't going to stop building coal powered projects anytime soon. The Chinese are bringing two new coal power projects online ever week.

As recently as the start of last year, the Chinese government’s target was to have 5,000 megawatts of wind power installed by the end of next year, or the equivalent of eight big coal-fired power plants, a tiny proportion of China’s energy usage and a pittance at a time when China was building close to two coal-fired plants a week.

But in March of last year, as power companies began accelerating construction of wind turbines, the government issued a forecast that 10,000 megawatts would actually be installed by the end of next year. And now, just 15 months later, with construction of coal-fired plants having slowed to one a week and still falling, it appears that China will have 30,000 megawatts of wind energy by the end of next year — which was previously the target for 2020, Mr. Li said.

In other words, all those wind power projects will be the equivalent of 48 coal power plants. That sounds like a fantastic development until you realize that China brings that many coal power plants online in just 24 weeks (in under six months). The coal power plants are being brought online despite the wind power projects, which tells you that the demand is still outstripping the anticipated supply. It also means that emissions are not going to decline from China anytime soon.

The only way that would happen is if China gave up building new coal power plants altogether and built nuclear power plants alone.

China also doesn't have the kind of environmental controls that the US has, so they're moving ahead with projects that would be sure to raise eyebrows in the US and would certainly be delayed here.

Solar power arrays would require constant attention, including cleaning after every sandstorm, which is a frequent occurrence in the region where they're planning to be installed.

Then, there's the question of energy transmission. The facilities are being built faster than the transmission lines can be strung to get the power where it's needed.

But technical obstacles to renewable energy are popping up. Sandstorms in Dunhuang in the spring, for instance, will cover solar panels and render them useless until they are cleaned after each storm by squads of workers using feather brushes to avoid scratching the panels, a process expected to take two days.

And wind turbines are being built faster here than the national grid can erect high-voltage power lines to carry the electricity to cities elsewhere. On the windiest days, only half the power generated can be transmitted, said Min Deqing, a local renewable energy consultant.

Those are problems that could eventually be overcome, but the current energy loss means that the actual power produced from those wind power facilities is far less than billed.

Also, keep in mind that the Chinese are busy building new nuclear power plants, which can produce far more power around the clock than wind or solar facilities. China is going to be the largest market for nuclear power, and it's a major source of income for GE and other nuclear power plant producers. China is considering increasing its nuclear power capacity to 86GW (it's at 9GW currently), which outstrips the power that would be produced by wind by a considerable margin. In fact, the wind power is little more than a footnote.

Nuclear is the future for power production that will have the least emissions, and yet it's the one source of power that US Democrats are reluctant to pursue because of the continuing stigma associated with nuclear power and the fact that Sen. Harry Reid continues blocking the national nuclear repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mt. in Nevada.