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Macroscope | To end power crunches, China must rebuild its electricity grid around clean energy
- Finding the right balance between energy security and climate action will not be easy, and starts with building more battery storage and investing in flexible grid technology
- However, turning straight back to coal is not the answer – new coal plants should only be pursued when all other short-term options have been exhausted
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China has the fastest-growing clean energy capacity in the world yet faces recurring power shortages. This seeming paradox is really a sign that its clean power transition is approaching a critical tipping point – its entire power system needs to be rebuilt for the energy transition to advance.
After months of record-setting heatwaves, China’s energy planners are facing one of their toughest challenges yet. In the first seven months of the year, they added an incredible 53 gigawatts of wind and solar power capacity across the country, roughly equivalent to India’s total wind and solar capacity build-up since the mid-2010s.
This has helped drive a 22 per cent increase in wind and solar generation this year, reaching 700 terawatt hours (TWh). China now generates more than enough wind and solar energy to power Germany for a year.
But even with these dramatic increases, energy planners are still looking at a power shortage that could slow not only China’s energy transition but also the global manufacturing industry.
Meanwhile, coal still powers roughly 60 per cent of the nation’s energy, generating about 5,000 TWh last year. With expectations for a rapid increase in electricity demand in the next couple of years, China’s coal use may continue to expand until close to 2030.
Dr Muyi Yang leverages Ember’s analytical capacity to promote clean, sustainable energy in China and beyond. He is an adjunct fellow at the Australia-China Relations Institute, secretary of the International Society for Energy Transition Studies, and a senior policy fellow at Asia Society Australia, specialising in energy policy, electricity market reform, clean energy finance, and transport electrification.
Xing Zhang is senior analyst at the Finland-headquartered Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Xunpeng Shi is Research Principal at Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology, Sydney, and president of the International Society for Energy Transition Studies.
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