A China, maior produtora, importadora e consumidora de carvão do mundo, conseguiu o impensável: que as renováveis superem o combustível fóssil

China, The World’s Largest Producer, Importer, and Consumer of Coal, Achieves The Unthinkable: Renewables Surpass Fossil Fuel

Written by Noel Budeguer

Published on 10/10/2024 at 18:13

Be the first to react!

Historic Advance in China: Renewable Energies Surpass Coal, Highlighting a New Chapter in the Fight Against Pollution and Climate Change

In the land of coal, renewables are king. By 2023, coal accounted for nearly two-thirds of China’s electricity supply. The growing energy demand and the limited flexibility of the grid made China a country deeply dependent on the most polluting fossil fuel.

However, massive investments in wind and solar energy allowed for a rapid transition: Chinese renewables surpassed the fossil fuel in generation capacity during the first half of 2024, according to the country’s energy trade association.

Growth of Renewable Energies

40% Renewables by Year-End. The China Electricity Council (CEC) forecasts that coal’s share will fall below 37% by the end of 2024. At the same time, it projects an installed capacity of 40% for wind and solar.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

See also

This forecast assumes that China will add 300 gigawatts of renewable capacity to the grid this year, slightly more than the 293 GW installed last year and double what the rest of the world installs combined. Wind and solar would reach a total capacity of 1,350 GW, approximately 40% of the 3,300 GW from all energy sources.

Nuclear and Hydropower Also Grow. The report further predicts that nuclear and hydropower will keep pace with renewables, reaching 1,900 GW of clean capacity by the end of 2024. Nuclear and hydropower accounted for 53.9% of China’s energy mix in 2023. New installations would raise them to 57.5% of the total.

Challenges and Coal Control

Strict Control of Coal. Energy demand remains a challenge for China, which at the end of 2023 approved an additional 25 GW of capacity in coal plants. However, dependence on the fossil fuel is rapidly declining thanks to renewables and strict consumption controls mandated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2021. China aims to reduce coal use starting in 2026 and to be carbon neutral by 2060.

China, The World’s Largest Producer, Importer, and Consumer of Coal, Achieves The Unthinkable: Renewables Surpass Fossil Fuel

Historic Advance in China: Renewable Energies Surpass Coal, Highlighting a New Chapter in the Fight Against Pollution and Climate Change

Growth of Renewable Energies

Challenges and Coal Control

A giant printer called the “Ferrari” of concrete has landed in Latin America and can already build a 120-square-meter house in just 48 hours, making the traditional construction site look like something from the last century.

Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has ceased to be a climatic phenomenon and has become a biological system that feeds on itself, with 8,000 kilometers in length, 37 million tons of algae, and scientists confirm that it is now permanent.

A British company has installed in the middle of the ocean the world’s first floating platform that generates electricity 24 hours a day from the temperature difference between the surface and the depths of the Atlantic, without relying on wind or sun.

Brazil will harvest a record crop of up to 357 million tons of grains, but it does not have the capacity to store a large part of it. The storage deficit has reached the highest level in history and is equivalent to almost the entire production of Argentina.

Engineers had to pour concrete mixed with tons of ice throughout entire nights in the Dubai desert to erect the Burj Khalifa; any carelessness could clog the pipes half a mile high.

The James Webb telescope spotted a planet 700 light-years from Earth with mornings full of sand clouds and nights with clear skies, the temperature difference between the two hemispheres reaches an impressive 170 degrees.

At the bottom of the South Pole ice, the IceCube observatory drilled more than a kilometer and a half of ice to hunt ghost particles and test whether gravity obeys the rules of quantum physics.

Samara left the city, built a small power plant on her property, and now lives surrounded by waterfalls, her own energy, sustainable recycling, and preserved nature in the Serra da Mantiqueira.

While Saudi Arabia and Qatar are already closing a 300-kilometer-per-hour bullet train to connect the capitals in two years, Brazil is still at the stage of auctioning the first freight railway that should actually come to fruition.

Turkey hit a target using a real warhead and confirmed that its SOM-J cruise missile is ready, another step for the country to become a power that manufactures and exports its own military technology.

China, The World’s Largest Producer, Importer, and Consumer of Coal, Achieves The Unthinkable: Renewables Surpass Fossil Fuel

Historic Advance in China: Renewable Energies Surpass Coal, Highlighting a New Chapter in the Fight Against Pollution and Climate Change

Growth of Renewable Energies

Challenges and Coal Control

A giant printer called the “Ferrari” of concrete has landed in Latin America and can already build a 120-square-meter house in just 48 hours, making the traditional construction site look like something from the last century.

Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has ceased to be a climatic phenomenon and has become a biological system that feeds on itself, with 8,000 kilometers in length, 37 million tons of algae, and scientists confirm that it is now permanent.

A British company has installed in the middle of the ocean the world’s first floating platform that generates electricity 24 hours a day from the temperature difference between the surface and the depths of the Atlantic, without relying on wind or sun.

Brazil will harvest a record crop of up to 357 million tons of grains, but it does not have the capacity to store a large part of it. The storage deficit has reached the highest level in history and is equivalent to almost the entire production of Argentina.

Engineers had to pour concrete mixed with tons of ice throughout entire nights in the Dubai desert to erect the Burj Khalifa; any carelessness could clog the pipes half a mile high.

The James Webb telescope spotted a planet 700 light-years from Earth with mornings full of sand clouds and nights with clear skies, the temperature difference between the two hemispheres reaches an impressive 170 degrees.

Spanish city uses an aquifer hidden 11 meters deep as an urban ‘refrigerator’ for almost 30 years, saves 52% of energy in a public building, and now resorts to AI to prevent the solution from exhausting its potential

Canada is preparing a billion-dollar megaproject with 3.5 GW of wind energy, up to 530 turbines, green hydrogen, and ammonia for export, in a bid that could place the country at the center of the new global race for clean fuels.

France launches tenders for 12 GW in renewable energy, bets on offshore wind and imposes restrictions on Chinese components to accelerate energy sovereignty, protect European factories, and reduce dependence on oil and gas amid global pressure.

Advancement in renewable energy: researchers from UFPB and UNI of Peru create an unprecedented digital twin for a green hydrogen plant; Model is capable of simulating real-time operations and reducing industrial failures in strategic clean energy projects in Latin America.

At 4,400 meters of altitude in the Himalayas, where the air is so thin it makes breathing difficult, India’s state oil company drilled a thousand meters of rock to reach a 240-degree subsoil and set up the country’s first geothermal plant.

At the bottom of the South Pole ice, the IceCube observatory drilled more than a kilometer and a half of ice to hunt ghost particles and test whether gravity obeys the rules of quantum physics.

Samara left the city, built a small power plant on her property, and now lives surrounded by waterfalls, her own energy, sustainable recycling, and preserved nature in the Serra da Mantiqueira.

While Saudi Arabia and Qatar are already closing a 300-kilometer-per-hour bullet train to connect the capitals in two years, Brazil is still at the stage of auctioning the first freight railway that should actually come to fruition.

Turkey hit a target using a real warhead and confirmed that its SOM-J cruise missile is ready, another step for the country to become a power that manufactures and exports its own military technology.