In China, wind power is leaving nuclear behind. Electricity output from China’s wind farms exceeded that from its nuclear plantsfor the first timein 2012, by a narrow margin. Then in 2013, wind pulled away—outdoing nuclear by 22 percent. The 135 terawatt-hours of Chinese wind-generated electricity in 2013 would be nearly enough to power New York State.
Once China’s Renewable Energy Law established the development framework for renewables in 2005, the stage was set for wind’s exponential growth. Wind generating capacity more than doubled each year from 2006 to 2009 and has since increased by nearly 40 percent annually, to reach 91 gigawatts by the end of 2013 (1 gigawatt = 1,000 megawatts). Over 80 percent of this world-leading wind capacity is now feeding electricity to the grid.
Wind generation in 2013 could have been even higher, by an estimated 10 percent, but for the problem known as curtailment—when wind turbines are stopped because the grid cannot handle any more electricity. To help reduce curtailment and reach the official 2020 goal of 200 grid-connected gigawatts, China is building the world’s largest ultra-high-voltage transmission system. The raft of projects now under construction will connect the windier north and west to population centers in the central and eastern provinces.
为什么风能超过核能?
One of the reasons why nuclear power has not kept up with wind in China is the relative time it takes to get a project up and running. Whereas the typical Chinese nuclear reactor takes roughly six years to build, a wind farm can be completed in a matter of months.
Another factor was the interruption of China’s nuclear expansion after the2011 disaster in Fukushima, Japan.政府暂停了新反应堆的审批,直到2012年底,并在几个月的时间里对运行和在建反应堆的安全性进行了审查。官员们还将非沿海省份的反应堆建设计划至少推迟到2015年,这些省份用于冷却的水受到严重污染,而且供应日益短缺。
If all 28 gigawatts of nuclear capacity now under construction are completed by 2020, China will have reached 45 gigawatts—22 percent shy of the official capacity target of 58 gigawatts. Some of the more-advanced reactors now being built are seeing cost overruns and schedule delays of a year or more, so the nuclear fleet in 2020 may be even further from the official goal.
尽管风电最近的增长令人印象深刻,但它在中国的电力供应中所占的比例仍然不到3%,远远落后于水电(通常占17%)和主要的电力来源煤炭(占75%以上)。但随着风能比核能拥有更大的领先优势,它显示出了成为中国低碳能源经济中安全、可扩展、节水支柱的潜力。
For more information, see Earth Policy Institute’s latestWind Power Indicatorand the Plan B Update “Fukushima Meltdown Hastens Decline of Nuclear Power,” atwww.earth-policy.org.
Image credit:Land Rover Our Planetviaphotopincc
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