More than half of China's provinces have been rationing electricity over the past couple weeks, disrupting the daily lives of tens of millions of people. Elevators have been turned off, stores' opening hours have shortened, and factories have had to reduce operating days and power consumption.
A lack of coal — China's mainstay fuel for power generation — triggered widespread electricity curtailments to factories for a brief period in 2021, while a drop in hydropower output prompted a shortage in 2022, slowing economic growth.
The energy crisis has seen Beijing shift its political discourse and proclaim energy security as a more urgent national mission than the green energy transition. Now, the government is investing in a new wave of coal-fired power stations to try to meet demand.
Drought and heat drove this crisis
These conditions have strained central China's grid. Severe heat prompted a surge in electricity use for cooling, which can comprise half or more of electricity demand on extremely hot days. Peak power demand in Sichuan is above 60GW, up 25 percent from this time last year.
China's grid was 33% carbon-free in 2020, so hitting 80% clean requires China to build approximately 145 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar annually this decade. But this is feasible – the country's new installations are on track to surpass this target in 2023.
This data was collected by consulting company Enerdata, which annually publishes a report on energy production and consumption worldwide and its environmental impact. The same report shows the largest producer of “clean” energy is Norway, where 99% of the energy produced comes from renewable sources.
Though extreme weather is the direct cause of the electricity shortage, China faces long-term challenges. China's carbon emissions continue to rise as a leading economic and manufacturing hub with a population of 1.4 billion. The country is the world's biggest polluter, making it critical to global climate goals.
Chinese research has estimated that a one-meter rise in sea level would inundate 92,000 square kilometers of China's coast, thereby displacing 67 million people. Climate change caused an increase in sea level, threatening to impair the functions of harbors. Rising sea levels affect China's coastal land.
ExplainerWhy is China facing a power crisis, and what does it mean for the economy? China is facing a power shortage due to heatwaves and drought, affecting the Yangtze River basin in particular, home to several manufacturing hubs and a large population.
As a result, China has shifted to rely more on Russia and Mongolia to fulfill its coal needs. In late September 2021, China's reliance on foreign coal led to wide-scale energy blackouts in northeastern China.
China's top five crude suppliers, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Angola, and Brazil, generated nearly 60% of Chinese crude oil imports for 2019. China accounts for 40% of the 2004 oil-consumption increase, and thus is a key part of the cycle which had led to the oil price increase worldwide.
Background of the Energy Sector in China
This distribution network relies on a mix of coal, natural gas, hydropower, wind energy and solar energy. Throughout China's economic rise, thermal power was and still remains the primary source of power generation, accounting for roughly 79% of China's power generation of 2021.
The new guidelines, published in state news agency Xinhua, said China will gradually phase out its fossil fuel consumption. By 2030, China said the proportion of the energy it uses coming from non-fossil fuel sources will reach 25%.
It's not “so” cheap, but just a little bit cheaper than in the US. First most of China's electricity come from coal, which is the cheapest fuel to burn(and creates most pollution). Also, a large portion of China's electricity come from hydro-dams. China has the world's richest resources for hydro-power.
The 6.3% growth in China's gross domestic product from April to June outpaced a 4.5% expansion in the previous quarter. The still robust growth is largely due to the economy growing just 0.4% a year earlier in April-June of 2022 amid strict lockdowns in Shanghai and other cities during COVID-19 outbreaks.
Chad. Chad ranks as the world's most climate-vulnerable country on the Notre Dame-Global Adaptation Initiative Index, which examines a country's exposure, sensitivity and capacity to adapt to the negative effects of climate change.
China is rich in fossil fuel resources and doesn't resist exploiting them even though it also invests in green energy sources (mainly solar). As a result, large amounts o greenhouse gases with particulate matter reach the atmosphere. Another reason is China's role in global trade.
While China has launched some big initiatives and appears committed to mitigating the effects of the climate crisis and increasing its use of green energy, its international commitments fall short of what experts say is needed.
China, December 2022: The price of electricity is 0.076 U.S. Dollar per kWh for households and 0.088 U.S. Dollar for businesses which includes all components of the electricity bill such as the cost of power, distribution and taxes.
China has traditionally purchased nearly all of its coal supplies from producers within Asia, but that changed last year when it stopped buying from Australia amid a political dispute between the once-close trading partners, leading to sporadic shortages.
China's solar prowess is staggering. With a whopping 392 GW, the country is the largest producer of solar energy in the world. In the first six months of 2022, the nation has deployed more than 30.88 GW of Solar PV systems.
Renewable energy in Australia includes wind power, hydroelectricity, solar photovoltaics, heat pumps, geothermal, wave and solar thermal energy.
China is the largest consumer of primary energy in the world, using some 157.65 exajoules in 2021. This is far more than was consumed by the United States, which ranks second. The majority of primary energy fuels are still derived from fossil fuels such as oil and coal.