Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
mines are located in China's heartland, far from the major coastal demand
centers. Consequently, coal transport uses almost half of all rail transport
capacity in China.
69
herefore, to state that renewable energy in China is
constrained by geographic barriers (as some renewable energy critics sug-
gest) contradicts China's historical propensity to resolve such challenges.
Energy resource management has become an added concern for
China's energy policymakers. Up until the irst half of the 1990s, China
was self-suicient in its TPE supply. However, consumption growth rates
ranging between 5 to 8% per year resulted in China becoming a net TPE
importer in 1997.
70
In coal, rich reserves have permitted China to maintain
a net export balance. However, since 2000 China's export surplus in coal has
declined from 52.9 million tons to 5 million tons in 2008.
71
In petroleum,
China imported only 7.6% of its supplies in 1995, but by 2007, petroleum
imports exceeded 50% of total oil consumption.
China's voracious consumption of energy has also signiicantly dimin-
ished fossil fuel reserve-to-production ratios. Table 6.5 provides a compari-
son of fossil fuel reserve-to-production ratios for China, the United States,
India, and the global average. At current rates of consumption, China may
have less than 40 years remaining before it becomes almost entirely depen-
dent on imported fossil fuel.
72
Alarm over fossil fuel resource depletion has
catalyzed a number of initiatives designed to improve energy eiciency and
stimulated political support for alternative energy development.
73
he broadening of technological expertise provides policymakers with
electricity generation diversiication options that did not always exist. Prior
to the 1970s, China's two core electricity generation technologies were coal-
ired power and hydropower. Yet even so, engineering quality was desul-
tory, as evidenced by the tragedy of the Banqiao Dam in Henan Province,
which collapsed in 1975 causing deaths in excess of 100,000. However, in
the 1970s, technological expertise began to gel in new energy areas. China's
commercial nuclear program formally began in 1972 with the 728 Project,
Table 6.5
COMPARATIVE RESERVES TO PRODUCTION RATION
FOR COAL, OIL AND NATURAL GAS
World
Average
United
States
(Years)
China
India
Coal
41
122
224
114
Oil
11.1
42
12.4
18.7
Natural Gas
32.3
60.4
11.6
35.6
Data from Zhang (2011).
