The dark side of China's renewables push

Like so many things about China, it's hard to known what to think about its huge investments in renewable energy.

As with electric vehicles, high-speed trains, etc, China leads the world in renewables. It is bringing online each year more clean energy than the rest of the world combined, in fact twice as much as the rest of the world combined! Renewables now make up over half of China's power generation capacity. It also exports vastly more clean tech than the rest of the world, and the top several wind and solar exporters are all Chinese. And - whatever the USA under Trump (or even Canada under Carney) is doing, as it lurches back towards a 20th century reliance on coal, oil and gas - China is not slowing down: it plans to increase its renewable energy production six-fold in the coming years.

And so it should. For the last twenty years or so, China has accounted for the largest share of fossil fuel greenhouse has emissions, and it still has a huge number of legacy coal power stations, although renewables are now starting to replace them. The last year saw the first slight decline in Chinese CO2 emissions.

So, what's not to like? Well, as usual, China being China, anything good is tinged with unfortunate blemishes of bad stuff.

Much of China's renewable resources are in the north and west of the country, including the area in and around Tibet, which it has been illegally occupying for decades. The clear air at high elevations, the abundant sunshine, constant winds and fast-flowing rivers, make for a renewable energy bonanza, and China is developing it at a furious pace. 

Take, for example, a new solar energy development on the high Tibetan plains. Talatan Solar Park is 162 square miles in area, seven times the size of Manhattan, or about the size of Chicago, and still growing. Wind turbines, hydroelectric dams, and pumped water generation contribute still more to the huge amount of renewable power generated in the area. 

Thing is, though, 90% of China's population and the vast majority of its heavy industry and its power-hungry data centres are in the south and east of the country, over 1,000 miles away. Nothing daunted, China has developed a massive network of ultra-high-voltage transmission lines (800,000 - 1,000,000 volts or even higher in some cases) stretching more than 2,000 miles. These transmission lines use direct current (DC) technology, ensuring little or no transmission losses. Huge pylons march across the country, most of it reasonably unpopulated.

But there is some population, and, not too surprisingly, it turns out that a million volts overhead is not particularly healthy. Sparks fly from umbrellas and fishing rods, resulting in numb hands, and there are rumours of people being electrocuted. 

But, this being China, there have been no protests, no official investigations, and no statistics or reports to work with, just vague rumours and some stoic endurance for the national interest. NIMBY is just not a thing here.

Should we, then, laud China's attempts to kick its nasty coal and fossil fuel habit? Well, I guess so, but it must tempered with a healthy dose of skepticism.