China's Renewal
Hungry for fuel, it emerges as a leader in alternative energy
Boosting output. In response, the government has pursued diplomatic relationships with oil-rich countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. It has funded railways in Nigeria and sold weapons to Iran for the right to buy oil from these regimes. Domestically, China just completed construction of the main wall of the Three Gorges, the world's largest hydroelectric dam (whose output is not counted toward the renewable-energy goals). It has also been drilling oil wells, developing coal-fired power plants, and building nuclear reactors along the coast.
The new emphasis on renewables, by contrast, is a relief for those who worry about the environmental impact of China's energy consumption. The country is already the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and some Chinese cities have been called "invisible" because they cannot be seen on satellite images. According to the World Bank, China contains 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities. But the Kyoto Protocol came into effect for China last year, aiming to control greenhouse gas emissions. The country's new renewable-energy law specifies tariffs that favor nonfossil energy sources such as wind, water, and solar power. Beijing has promulgated building codes mandating that all new construction dramatically improve energy efficiency. "We need everything--natural gas, nuclear, coal, renewable energy," says Li Junfeng, secretary general of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association. "But for the long term, renewable is still the most important."
China began tapping into renewable energy in the late 1980s because of worries that pollution and associated health and environmental issues caused by industrialization could cause popular unrest. In 2004, an estimated $5.5 billion was invested in renewable energy in China. The rest of the world spent a total of $30 billion. "There is no renewable-energy law in the U.S.," says Eckhart. "We fund research and development, and give incentives. China is giving directives--getting right to the point."
Small solar panels can already be seen across the rooftops of major Chinese cities like Beijing. These supply power to solar water-heating systems, of which China is already both the largest producer and consumer in the world. At least 10 percent of all households in China (that's 30 million households) have them--and the market is growing by 20 percent to 25 percent a year, according to Eric Martinot, a leading researcher on renewable energy at Beijing's Qinghua University. This is partly because the relative cost of systems is so much less than in other markets. Someone in China can buy a solar water heating system for less than $200, a fraction of the cost of a comparable system in Europe. In the Chinese countryside, farmers whose houses are not connected to an electricity grid will pump water up to their roofs from their own wells to heat using solar power. "At first, in the countryside, they just had barrels that they painted black and put in the courtyard," says Cao Zhifeng, an engineer with the science academy. "But over time the systems became more sophisticated, and now ... they use insulated pipes."
advertisement
