Greening trends within China’s energy system: A 2019 update

Professor Emeritus John Mathews and Ms. Xin Huang have just published the article “Greening trends within China’s energy system: A 2019 update” on The Asian-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.

This article presents updated evidence that reveals a continuing trend towards the greening of China’s electric power system, particularly in the domestic context. The trend has been substantiated by the increases in China’s national capacity added from renewable (Water, Wind and Sun) sources, electricity generated from WWS sources, and investment in new generation infrastructure. The trend is also confirmed by the expansion of China’s share of global renewable power over the past two decades in terms of cumulative installed capacity, actual green electricity generated and green energy consumption. China’s results in greening its electric power system is compared with the comparable results for the US to demonstrate the experience of two different energy strategies.

The article provides a reminder that China’s greening has been happening within a large and growing carbon-intensive existing system. The changes of the black fossil fuel sector (thermal) and the nuclear sector (growing, but not nearly as fast as WWS) are also presented.

Read the full article on The Asian-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus at: https://apjjf.org/2020/17/MathewsHuang.html.