Unusually dry conditions in China are forcing the country to fire up its coal power plants to supply its energy needs. The world’s largest polluter has been feeling the effects of global warming in recent years amid extreme weather events, including heat waves, forest fires, flooding and record-low rainfall.
These events have put massive pressure on China’s energy system, forcing it to produce significantly more energy to supply the increasing energy demands of the country’s households. At the same time, China has also been forced to contend with a global energy crisis that reduced energy supplies while significantly increasing its cost.
The result is that China is turning back to coal to make up for energy deficits and supply its billion-plus population with electricity. While the East Asian country may just be doing what it can to shore up energy supplies in the short term, environmentalists worry that China’s going back to coal could have significant consequences for the global fight against climate change.
China is currently responsible for nearly one-third of global emissions. With coal set to play an increasingly dominant role in its energy mix, bringing global emissions down will be a challenge. However, with drought ravaging the country and drying up reservoirs and dams used to generate hydropower by as much as 50%, China’s hydropower output has taken a significant hit.
In regions such as the Southwestern Sichuan Province, which relies on hydropower for around 80% of its energy needs, power generation from hydropower stations is down by over one-half. Sichuan is also the largest hydroelectricity producer in China, accounting for 30% of the country’s hydropower capacity.
Reuters reports that the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai, which carry a lot of China’s manufacturing capacity, also rely on the hydropower generated in Sichuan. The extreme weather events in China have the potential to affect other countries as China plays a key role in the global economy by manufacturing multitudes of key raw materials.
Multitudes of factories in provinces require tons of energy to run daily, increasing China’s overall energy needs and putting incredible pressure on the country’s already stretched grid. Government officials are already instructing factories in some regions to limit production or shut down their operations completely to limit industrial energy consumption. With the drought expected to last for the next couple of months, China will most likely continue to rely on its coal-fired power plants.
These realities show that while the world may want to completely phase out coal, it will not be easy. Coal producers such as Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE: BTU) are likely to be around for a while to address the needs of countries that need coal to bridge the gaps in their energy supply.
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