China is the world’s largest coal consumer and, consequently, the country that emits the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is also the largest developer of renewable energy. Chinese wind and solar power have grown so much that the country no longer needs natural gas to switch from coal.
China and natural gas. China imports more liquefied natural gas than any other country in the world, but its share of the energy mix has remained at 3% since 2015. Wind and solar, by contrast, have quadrupled to over 16% over the same period. Meanwhile, coal’s share has fallen from 70% to 61%.
Although China continues to increase its use of coal with growing energy demand, renewables are contributing more than natural gas to reduce their participation in energy generation.
No transition fuel. Natural gas will therefore not be the fuel that helps China abandon coal, says an IEEFA reportRenewables are taking over that role sooner than expected, and China simply does not need a transition fuel.
It’s a question of prices. Chinese utility-scale renewables are significantly cheaper than imported LNG, which is why the Chinese government has encouraged their use, as well as oil and natural gas exploration within the country.
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The transition is today. Returning to renewables: last year, China expanded its capacity by 301 gigawatts, 60% of what the entire world added. Wind and solar are expanding so rapidly in China that the country expects to comply at the end of 2024 the renewable energy objective that had been set for 2030: 1,200 GW of power.
China also aims to reduce fossil fuel use to less than 20% by 2060, when it hopes to achieve net-zero emissions.
Some challenges. It’s not all about plugging in solar panels and wind turbines. Like the United States and Europe, China is concerned about the overproduction of its renewables, especially photovoltaics, whose surplus is not used when the sun stops shining.
Rapid growth has caused a mismatch between supply and demand, and China needs to upgrade its power grids and storage capacity to stabilize renewable energy supplies without relying on coal — or transitional fuels.
Image | Pxhere (CC0)
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