China Environmental Law

There have been a number of giddy reports lately about how China is a world-beater when it comes to renewable energy.  In the midst of such “irrational exuberance,” it is good to know that some people can keep their heads.  A story published yesterday in Scientific American, “China’s Big Push for Renewable Energy,” provides a balanced picture of the China renewable energy situation.

Here are some of the key points:

• A mighty wind, but an even mightier growth in energy demand. By the end of 2007, 6 gigawatts of turbines built equal to less than 1 percent-0.6 percent-of the country’s power. By 2020, even under the most optimistic projections, wind will supply less than 3 percent of total electricity production.
• No room at the wind inn. The upside for new entrants in the wind power market in China is small. The major state-owned power and oil companies have locked up all the good utility-scale wind farm locations in China. However, not all of these locations are buildable “Because land is very precious in China, some places will not be allowed to build wind farms,” notes [He] Dexin [president of Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA) who has been involved in wind power since the 1970s].
• Off-shoring’s an option but mind the typhoons. The China Meteorology Research Institute predicts that off-shore wind farms could provide up to 750 gigawatts of electricity, but “typhoons wreaked havoc on poorly designed wind farms in the south of the country in recent years.” “The reality in China is they develop [wind farms] too fast,” says CWEA’s Cai Fengbo. “The quality of wind generation suffered.”
• Solar panels everywhere, but almost none on the grid. China is also the number one producer of solar photovoltaics, however. “99 percent goes outside,” says Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association secretary general Li Junfeng. “The local market is very limited because [PV] is too expensive.”
• Green is as green does. There’s nothing wrong with China making a buck on green technology even if it doesn’t use much of it at home, except when those industries or their suppliers fail to follow the applicable environmental rules then Chinese citizens end up “bearing the burden of the pollution that can go along with the manufacture of such renewable energy for other countries-whether the acid rain-forming sulfur dioxide emitted from making the steel in a wind turbine’s blade or the noxious chemicals left over after manufacturing specialized silicon, or glass, that can turn sunshine into electricity.” “To stop global warming, it’s not an excuse to destroy the local environment,” says Greenpeace’s Liu. “Producing photovoltaics must have strong controls on chemicals.” There are strong controls on such chemicals, the problem is those controls are often ignored.
• Ok so what’s left, dam it! “So that leaves dams as the cleanest, cheapest option for electricity generation in China.” China has a hydroelectric potential of 400 million kilowatts, of which only about 28% has been developed. “Within 30 to 50 years, hydro will be the main energy we should rely on,” predicts Lai Hun Suen, a professor of sustainable development at Chongqing University and a municipal government official.

There are still a number of hurdles that need to be cleared before renewable energy has a shot at putting a dent in China’s growing carbon emissions.  I don’t doubt China’s commitment to renewable energy.  The amount of energy produced from renewable resources continues to grow.  It deserves credit for these efforts.  It is still a long way, however, from developing and implementing a coherent renewable energy strategy that does not rely primarily on building even more dams, with more community relocations and more environmental harm.