China Environmental Law

Caijing published an article yesterday which contained some encouraging news (somewhat less encouraging if you are not a big fan of nuclear) about the trends that emerged in China’s power sector in 2008.

Here are the interesting figures:

Totals:

• Total investment in power sector: RMB 576.3 billion (1.52 percent more than the previous year, according to a report released recently by the China Electricity Council (CEC)).
• Total capacity additions: 90 million kilowatts of power generation.

Nuclear:

• Investment in nuclear power increased 72 percent.  China approved the construction of 14 nuclear power generation turbines with a total capacity of 15.12 million kilowatts.

Wind: 

• Investment in wind power increased 88 percent year on year, with 4.66 million kilowatts of wind power capacity added. 

Hydro:

• 20.1 million kilowatts of hydropower capacity added.

Coal:

• Investment in coal-fired plants declined 22 percent, with a total of 65.75 million kilowatts of coal-fired capacity.

Thus, there appears to be a perceptible shift away from coal in China’s generation mix, but its too early to announce a trend.  The Caijing article notes, however,

emphasis is growing on power grid construction and clean energy development. Xue Jing, director of statistics and information at the CEC [China Electricity Council], said at an earlier conference that China will invest more in the power grid and clean energy, and gradually decrease the proportion of power plants that are coal-fired.

Dot Earth (h/t Climate Progress ) reports on a study by Stanford University researchers that shows a “steep drop since the fall” in the growth in China’s power generation, due presumably to the economic downturn. 

A potential benefit from the downturn in China, as reported in an “initial rough projection” by the same Stanford researchers, is that China may emit 

somewhere between 1.9 and 2.6 billion tons less carbon dioxide from 2008 to 2010 than it would have under “business as usual” if current bearish trends for the global economy hold up.

Numbers reconciliation: As the perseptive Zhirui notes in a comment, the Caijing report deals with 2008 capacity additions (90 million kilowatts of additional power generation capcity in 2008) while the Stanford numbers track power generation (how much power was produced by the installed capacity) in China in 2008.  It is still fair to assume that a fall in power genration means that older units have been taken off line.  Since these older units are presumably less efficient and more polluting, their retirement will help China achieve its energy efficiency and pollution reduction goals.