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China will use four times more renewable energy than nuclear
Greenpeace Feature:
China will use four times more renewable energy than nuclear power
Wednesday, 24 May, 2006, China has signed a $300 million dollar deal, involving Hydro Tasmania, to build three 50 mega watt wind farms in Eastern China.
This means that China's renewable energy market will be at least four times as large as its nuclear power market, and possibly far larger still.
It's fascinating to see how much space the Australian media has dedicated to the prospect of selling Australian uranium to China.
But one issue has been conspicuously absent from the coverage of Premier Wen shaking an array of important hands, even though it holds far greater prospects than uranium for both increasing export dollars and for reducing greenhouse pollution.
Slipping through almost unnoticed in the acres of newsprint was the revelation that, the same day as the uranium deal, a joint enterprise called Roaring Forties, involving Hydro Tasmania, signed a $300 million AUD deal to build three 50MW windfarms in Eastern China.
Those windfarms are part of China's plans to expand its wind industry to a huge 30,000MW by 2020 in order to reach its legislated target to meet a full 15% of its energy from renewable sources by that year. Over that same period, uranium's salesmen say nuclear power may meet perhaps 4 per cent of China's energy needs. But that is a projection, not a legislated target, and China does not necessarily expect, or want, it to be met.
What this boils down to is that China's renewable energy market will be at least three times as large as its nuclear power market, and possibly far larger still. Most Australians could be forgiven for not realising that, but ignorance is no excuse for our governments and media.
They know that China, understanding the need to address climate change and air pollution, has made a real effort to develop its renewable energy resources. Thanks to the right policy signals, China has already installed more solar water heaters than the rest of the world put together. We've well and truly missed the boat there, but it's China's huge plans for photovoltaic solar power that hold perhaps the biggest potential, a potential which UNSW-educated Dr Shi Zhengrong has tapped into with spectacular effect.
An Australian citizen, Dr Shi has become a billionaire, and made it to the Forbes list as the richest man in the world's fastest growing economy, by taking Australian solar technologies to the huge Chinese market with his company, Suntech.
Australian researchers have made many world class renewable energy breakthroughs, including those by the UNSW team Dr Shi worked with. Isn't it a pity they aren't getting government support to get them off the ground at home, let alone to follow Dr Shi's example and tap into the massive Chinese market.
Australia's total uranium exports are currently worth around $400 million a year. Even if, as expected, they double with this deal with China, the total earnings are equivalent to less than three individual wind contracts on the scale of the Roaring Forties deal. And there are perhaps 200 of those deals to be won, if we want them.
In addition, as Suntech and Roaring Forties show, the cash from renewable energy developments can start flowing to us today. Regardless of the deals dominating the news, uranium sales aren't expected to eventuate for up to a decade while mines expand and power plants are proposed, sited, approved [maybe], built and finally commissioned.
Meanwhile, greenhouse pollution continues to rise.
Which brings us back to the key point. The uranium salesmen have done a great job pushing their product, based on the argument that climate change leaves us no choice but to move to nuclear. They only get away with this by asserting, without any attempt at justification, that renewable energy can't achieve the desired shift as well as nuclear can.
But an examination of the facts shows that the opposite is really the case. Nuclear power takes decades to install and could only ever contribute a small proportion of global energy supply. And, while achieving much too little far too late to reduce greenhouse pollution, it would create a whole new environmental and security nightmare.
Renewable energy sources, on the other hand, are growing at tremendous rates around the world, powering whole regions and proving their potential beyond doubt. A stable mix of solar, wind, bioenergy, tidal and wave power, and geothermal power sources, introduced alongside energy efficiency measures, are ready and able to power the globe without polluting the atmosphere. Contrary to the rhetoric of coal and uranium corporations, many of these renewable energy sources can and do already provide steady and strong baseload power. Many are cheaper than nuclear power, and some are already cheaper even than coal once you factor in the costs of coal's favoured solution - burying its greenhouse pollution.
That's not to say it won't be a huge challenge making the transition to renewables. It will be a challenge but it is achievable.
The problem is, a concerted push by uranium and nuclear power corporations to discredit renewables could easily derail that vital transition and make it all the harder for us to tackle climate change.
That's why we must be extra careful not to be sucked in by the fun political story of the Howard Government's radioactive wedge against the ALP; and not to unquestioningly accept the rhetoric of the big miners.
Isn't it time the debate about China's energy future, and Australia's role in powering that, actually started to reflect the reality of what energy sources China actually wants? Of where the real export dollars are to be found? Of what technologies will actually work to reduce greenhouse pollution?
That would be good news indeed.
By Tim Hollo, Greenpeace climate team
Find the original Greenpeace's feature article: here
Note: this article has been re-published with due permission from Greepeace
China will use four times more renewable energy than nuclear power
Wednesday, 24 May, 2006, China has signed a $300 million dollar deal, involving Hydro Tasmania, to build three 50 mega watt wind farms in Eastern China.
This means that China's renewable energy market will be at least four times as large as its nuclear power market, and possibly far larger still.
It's fascinating to see how much space the Australian media has dedicated to the prospect of selling Australian uranium to China.
But one issue has been conspicuously absent from the coverage of Premier Wen shaking an array of important hands, even though it holds far greater prospects than uranium for both increasing export dollars and for reducing greenhouse pollution.
Slipping through almost unnoticed in the acres of newsprint was the revelation that, the same day as the uranium deal, a joint enterprise called Roaring Forties, involving Hydro Tasmania, signed a $300 million AUD deal to build three 50MW windfarms in Eastern China.
Those windfarms are part of China's plans to expand its wind industry to a huge 30,000MW by 2020 in order to reach its legislated target to meet a full 15% of its energy from renewable sources by that year. Over that same period, uranium's salesmen say nuclear power may meet perhaps 4 per cent of China's energy needs. But that is a projection, not a legislated target, and China does not necessarily expect, or want, it to be met.
What this boils down to is that China's renewable energy market will be at least three times as large as its nuclear power market, and possibly far larger still. Most Australians could be forgiven for not realising that, but ignorance is no excuse for our governments and media.
They know that China, understanding the need to address climate change and air pollution, has made a real effort to develop its renewable energy resources. Thanks to the right policy signals, China has already installed more solar water heaters than the rest of the world put together. We've well and truly missed the boat there, but it's China's huge plans for photovoltaic solar power that hold perhaps the biggest potential, a potential which UNSW-educated Dr Shi Zhengrong has tapped into with spectacular effect.
An Australian citizen, Dr Shi has become a billionaire, and made it to the Forbes list as the richest man in the world's fastest growing economy, by taking Australian solar technologies to the huge Chinese market with his company, Suntech.
Australian researchers have made many world class renewable energy breakthroughs, including those by the UNSW team Dr Shi worked with. Isn't it a pity they aren't getting government support to get them off the ground at home, let alone to follow Dr Shi's example and tap into the massive Chinese market.
Australia's total uranium exports are currently worth around $400 million a year. Even if, as expected, they double with this deal with China, the total earnings are equivalent to less than three individual wind contracts on the scale of the Roaring Forties deal. And there are perhaps 200 of those deals to be won, if we want them.
In addition, as Suntech and Roaring Forties show, the cash from renewable energy developments can start flowing to us today. Regardless of the deals dominating the news, uranium sales aren't expected to eventuate for up to a decade while mines expand and power plants are proposed, sited, approved [maybe], built and finally commissioned.
Meanwhile, greenhouse pollution continues to rise.
Which brings us back to the key point. The uranium salesmen have done a great job pushing their product, based on the argument that climate change leaves us no choice but to move to nuclear. They only get away with this by asserting, without any attempt at justification, that renewable energy can't achieve the desired shift as well as nuclear can.
But an examination of the facts shows that the opposite is really the case. Nuclear power takes decades to install and could only ever contribute a small proportion of global energy supply. And, while achieving much too little far too late to reduce greenhouse pollution, it would create a whole new environmental and security nightmare.
Renewable energy sources, on the other hand, are growing at tremendous rates around the world, powering whole regions and proving their potential beyond doubt. A stable mix of solar, wind, bioenergy, tidal and wave power, and geothermal power sources, introduced alongside energy efficiency measures, are ready and able to power the globe without polluting the atmosphere. Contrary to the rhetoric of coal and uranium corporations, many of these renewable energy sources can and do already provide steady and strong baseload power. Many are cheaper than nuclear power, and some are already cheaper even than coal once you factor in the costs of coal's favoured solution - burying its greenhouse pollution.
That's not to say it won't be a huge challenge making the transition to renewables. It will be a challenge but it is achievable.
The problem is, a concerted push by uranium and nuclear power corporations to discredit renewables could easily derail that vital transition and make it all the harder for us to tackle climate change.
That's why we must be extra careful not to be sucked in by the fun political story of the Howard Government's radioactive wedge against the ALP; and not to unquestioningly accept the rhetoric of the big miners.
Isn't it time the debate about China's energy future, and Australia's role in powering that, actually started to reflect the reality of what energy sources China actually wants? Of where the real export dollars are to be found? Of what technologies will actually work to reduce greenhouse pollution?
That would be good news indeed.
By Tim Hollo, Greenpeace climate team
Find the original Greenpeace's feature article: here
Note: this article has been re-published with due permission from Greepeace
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