Essays by Eric Worrall
There’s something very Chinese about building co-located coal power plants, to stabilize output from their solar and wind power plants.
Climate change: China’s rise in green energy offers hope for warming
By Matt McGrath & Mark Poynting
BBC News Climate & Science
Wind and solar power is booming in China and could help curb global carbon emissions much faster than expected, according to a new study.
Solar panel installations alone are growing at a rate that will increase global capacity by 85% by 2025.
The report said the country’s green energy targets for 2030 look set to be five years ahead of schedule.
But Coal power plants are also on the rise, in part to back up all new wind and solar farms, the authors said.
…
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66043485
When we think of China, we think of people (besides Taiwan) who have an almost unbroken tradition of thousands of years of tyrannical rule. But it’s easy to forget that it was these same people who had thousands of years of practice in creative interpretation of orders that they were not allowed to disobey.
President Xi has ordered them to build renewable plants, but renewable plants are unreliable. So Chinese power plant owners are also building low-cost coal power plants to stabilize their renewable energy output. That way, they follow the central committee’s orders to build more solar and wind power, but also keep a stable and affordable energy supply.
No doubt, if Xi ordered them to close coal plants, they would switch to gas instead – and put coal gasifiers next to gas plants to be reused.
If Xi ordered them to dismantle the gasifiers, they would relocate the gasifiers a reasonable distance from the coal plants, so that they could deny they knew they were receiving the gas generated. from coal, and lay a pipeline from the gasifier to the gas generator.
If Xi ordered them to get rid of their remote gasifiers, they would simply shut down the economy whenever renewable energy supplies fail, until China’s Central Committee pulls out.
An economic shutdown due to large quotas actually happened in 2021, after people burn off their annual emission reduction coal quota for 6 months. President Xi is clearly trying to boost the success of the Chinese economy in reducing emissions, but as is often the case in Communist-run countries, the initiative has gone out of reach. control. From what I’ve experienced with Chinese culture, I guess people start trying to impress their bosses by making compelling arguments that even more cuts, amplifications, etc. original order to the point of absurdity.
Disobeying and responding to criticism is not an option in countries where bosses can shoot you, even if the instructions are ridiculous. So everyone accepts the quota, but continues to burn coal at a normal rate. If anything an energy consumption race can develop – nobody wants to be left short if any new quota releases happen, so everyone will want to burn off their coal quota. I’m as fast as possible.
Once the coal quota runs out, regional managers simply shut down the Chinese economy and wait until new orders are issued. The Central Committee gave in, everyone blamed others, and business as usual was allowed to continue.
My question – will BBC write good articles about our green progress, if Western energy companies start playing this game and build coal plants on the same site as the ones. Renewable energy of the West? Or does the BBC only give coal factory certificates to communist dictatorships?
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