A new contender China launches green power revolution to catch up on West

05:55 AM Jun 11, 2009

A man rides a motorcycle past a wind turbine at a wind farm in Rudong, Jiangsu province, China. BLOOMBERG

BEIJING - China’s ambitious plans to utilise wind and solar energy represent a direct challenge to Europe’s claims of world leadership on cutting carbon emissions. China believes it can match Europe by 2020, producing a fifth of its energy needs from renewable sources, said Mr Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of China’s national development and reform commission on Tuesday.

“Personally, I think we could reach the target of having renewables provide 20 per cent of total energy consumption,” he said. That matches the European goal and would represent a direct challenge to Europe’s claims to world leadership in the field, despite China’s relative poverty. Some experts have cast doubt on whether Britain will be able to reach 20 per cent.

Beijing seeks to achieve these goals by directing a significant share of China’s US$590-billion ($853-billion) economic stimulus package to low-carbon investment. Of that total, more than $30 billion will be spent directly on environmental projects and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Tourists walk near solar panels in Dongsha Island, also known as Pratas Island, Taiwan. BLOOMBERG

But the indirect green share in the stimulus, in the form of investment in carbon-efficient transport and electricity transmission systems, would be far larger. HSBC Global Research estimated the total green share could be over a third of the total package.

Mr Zhang said the government would also plough money into the expansion of solar heating systems. He said the country was already a world leader, with 130m square metres of solar heating arrays already installed, and was planning to invest more. The US goal for solar heating by 2020 is 200m square metres.

Mr Zhang said developing countries would have to pursue “a sustainable development path”, and said Beijing was open to the idea of limits on the carbon intensity of its economy (the emissions per unit of output). THE GUARDIAN

From TODAY, World – Thursday, 11-Jun-2009

Related articles by Zemanta

• China alone 'could bring world to brink of climate calamity' (guardian.co.uk)
• Home Wind Energy: Will it Survive Your Own Cost-Benefit Analysis? (sustainablog.org)
• Biomass 'worse than fossil fuels' (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Ecoventura vows to eliminate fossil fuels (gadling.com)
• First Energy Department Loan Guarantee Goes To ... A Solar Manufacturer (worldchanging.com)
• Wind turbines on public sector land could power 1.5 million homes (telegraph.co.uk)
• Cycle Capital Management conducts first closing of Cycle Capital Fund I, L.P. (newswire.ca)
• Britain to help China on carbon capture (guardian.co.uk)
• China puts its faith in solar power with huge renewable energy investment (guardian.co.uk)

‘Humans are too clever’

04:02 PM May 08, 2009

MM LEE: I read an analysis ... This man said, for thousands of years of agricultural societies, the only source of energy was the sun which limits what they can grow, what animals can feed on the grass, what population you can sustain. Then came the industrial revolution ... (driven by) fire and coal. Coal is stored solar energy. Then they found oil; also stored solar energy.

Now ... they got this experiment to make two atoms collide and see whether they can generate power like the sun. So man is trying to generate mini suns, that can go on forever. But when you switch it on the whole thing burns up. So man has not found a way ...

And if we do find out what’s the way, will that solve it? I don’t think so. We’ve become too clever by far. If we find a solution to energy, the world will be overpopulated ... In 50 years, we are expecting 9.5 billion people from 6.3 billion now. You find a new energy source, we’ll become 80 billion people in the next century. Then what?

So I think sooner or later, the human being must come to terms with the fact that this planet called earth can only sustain so much. You go beyond that, you destroy your habitat.

MODERATOR TOMMY KOH: Haven’t they learnt that already?

MM LEE: If we’ve learnt that, why are we still doing these stupid things?

From TODAY – Friday, 08-May-2009

Related articles by Zemanta

• Beyond Fossil Fuels: David Mills on Solar Power (sciam.com)
• Cruel irony: Do renewable power plants threaten their surrounding environment? (sciam.com)
• Solar Power May Be Eco-Friendly. But Some in California Call It a Blight (time.com)