In today’s talking points, we consider the potential success of renewable energy across hundreds of Chinese cities.
China’s growth in the renewable energy sector is driving down prices
Over the last few years, China’s reliance on the coal industry has sparked huge research and investment into new renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, hydro and nuclear. With the increased pressure on companies and countries to become more sustainable and contribute less to global warming, China has taken a promising step forward in the renewable energy sector. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, China’s wind capacity soared 22-fold and solar nearly 700-fold from 2008 to 2018. Furthermore, it has pledged to invest 2.5 trillion yuan in renewable power generation from 2017-2020. With China ‘s status as a leading economic powerhouse, this hopefully will encourage other countries to follow their lead and rely more on renewable energy sources.
China’s investment into this market has rapidly driven down the price of solar energy. In a recent study conducted by the Nature Energy journal, 344 Chinese cities were found to have solar systems producing energy at lower prices than the national grid. Furthermore, panel prices have been decreasing since 2016, which presents future opportunities for Australia their own renewable energy sector, with the help of China’s exports.
Source: Jack Guy, cnn.com
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/15/business/china-solar-electricity-scli-intl/index.html
China’s future in clean energy looks bright
The Belt and Road infrastructure initiative presents opportunities for emerging countries and new businesses to also expand into the green energy market. With China’s important and immense influence in this market, (it accounted for 30% of the world’s renewables last year), there presents a promising future for a cleaner and greener Earth. Furthermore, the fact that renewables formed the centrepiece of “Made in China 2025” shows how invested China is to install the same kind of green philosophy in other countries. As seen from the latets reports concerning the Amazon rainforest burning, there is a greater need for individuals, enterprises and nations to help preserve the world on which we live on for future generations.
This is a promising step-forward for China to eliminate existing problems such as air pollution, and to position itself as the world’s leading supplier of clean technologies and be a role-model for clean-climate ambitions and economic dynamism.
Source: Yukinori Hanada, asia.nikkei.com