China to Enact Strict Plan for Energy Conservation

A Coal-Fired Power Plant in Shuozhou, Shanxi, China

A coal-fired power plant in Shuozhou, Shanxi, Chin

Unrest in the Middle East has yielded change in the region, but the effects of anti-government protests are slowly being felt globally as oil soars to its highest price in over 2 years. The New York Times reported that Chinese Energy Specialists revealed that the government plans to announce strict goals for energy conservation.

Make no mistake, this is not an altruistic attempt by the world’s leading energy consumer and greenhouse gas emitter to go green or make strides to curb carbon footprint (energy security far out ways climate change in Chinese policy priorities). China views energy as a national security issue; the concern here is how rising oil prices will effect inflation, export competitiveness, and the country’s pollution problems, according to the NYT article.

China still sees oil as its most important energy source, but as Zhang Guobao, former Energy Czar in China, said, “Oil security is the most important part of achieving energy security,”he went on to say, “Preparations for alternative energies should be made as soon as possible.” China is looking to avoid getting stuck trying to fuel a booming economy on oil while prices skyrocket.

Despite the fact that China is the world’s biggest producer of wind turbines and solar panels at the lowest cost, a majority of its electricity comes from coal. When oil use increased dramatically along with the rise of automobile use, the government pushed extensively for electric cars. This decrease in oil consumption only increased the use of coal. Still, electricity plants tend to be much more efficient than the combustion of gasoline, and stay within the energy use goals China has in mind.

Looking at China’s imported energy sources, the concern coming from Beijing is understandable. Oil from the Middle East, along with the increasing price, gets to China via shipping lanes controlled by economic rivals India and the United States. Iran is also a large importer of crude oil to China. The instability of Iran leaves Russia as China’s most stable oil importer, but only 3% of crude oil imports to China come from its neighbors to the north.

Some are worried that the mostly state run energy industry in China would have to start allocating the limits on energy use. This could cause the decrease in production of certain products, like metals for instance. Stuart Burns on MetalMiner explains;

But who decides, with no free market to set prices on the basis of supply and demand? The impact that could have for resource-hungry activities like steel, aluminum and zinc smelting could be profound in the first half of this decade. China may decide it would rather import metals than import energy, reversing the trend of the last decade. Having temporarily idled some of the 20+ million tons of aluminum capacity, could the Chinese really close a significant portion of it permanently?

As china responds to the effects of rising oil prices, the rest of the world may end up feeling the effects of China’s energy policy. In the more immediate future, China may be looking at energy shortages as their own supplies may not be able to keep up with its rapid economic growth. China’s efforts in lowering energy consumption will no doubt have a number of other benefits along with the primary goals of securing its energy future. The reducing of greenhouse gas emissions will save money not only on energy but on health care costs as the environment in China becomes cleaner and safer for its citizens. The decisions made here will have significant effect on China’s role in energy in the region, as well as its role as a major contributer to climate change.

Mind the gap.

Bubble chart of CO2 emission per capita vs. GDP Gapminder is an organization dedicated to helping understand the world, and particularly environmental issues, by providing interesting tools for statistical analysis. They’re well-known for their Wonderbread-like bubble charts, and brief presentations by director Hans Rosling like the one at right on CO2 emissions from their “myth demolishing series.”

See also Worldmapper.

Coal Country

This week, the highly anticipated documentary “Coal Country” hits theaters. And, surprise, big coal is not thrilled with its release. From mountaintop removal footage to interviews with those most impacted—local residents of Appalachia—Coal Country exposes and breaks down the business of coal mining into its dirty parts. For one, an American Lung Association study shows that 24,000 Americans die each year from from coal-fired plant pollution (grist).

In addition, coal-fired power plants are major emitters of CO2, NOX, and SO2 into the atmosphere; NOX & SOX factor into acid rain. Another source of pollution may occur before the coal is even burned. In the controversial practice of mountain-top removal, a devastating process that strips off the living layers of a mountain for the sake of simpler coal extraction, heaps of tailings and overburden are often dumped as fill into valleys below or placed into poorly managed heaps whose runoff pollutes local waterways. This impacts not only those immediately adjacent to the plant, but also those further downstream. Coal remains “cheap” however, and many developing countries like China have immense deposits at their disposal, leaving the world to ponder: Will we ever break out of our addiction to coal? One can only hope. The movie opens in King Coal’s back yard on July 11th.

Coen Brothers lampoon ‘clean’ coal claims.

They’ve filmed murder mysteries in the middle of a Minnesota winter, Texas Border country manhunts and CIA shenanigans in the wilds of Washington D.C. Now the two-headed directing team known as the Brothers Coen are taking on the coal industry and their claims of ‘clean coal’ technology. Watch the first in a series of ads that imagine how household cleaning products would perform if they were made by the coal industry.

If the concept behind these ads seems familiar to those who follow the ad industry-it’s from industry hotshop Crispin Porter Bogusky, who was behind the ‘truth’ anti-smoking campaign that garnered so much attention over the last few years. Including this Super Bowl Ad ‘Shards o Glass’

Glad to see that when it comes to environmental messages, our ad industry friends can ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’

Can Coal be Clean? Cambridge-based Greatpoint says Yes

For those of us at Warm Home Cool Planet old enough to remember the last energy crisis, the current talk about Clean Coal, and Coal Gasification feels like deja vu, all over again.

Coal-to-liquids technology isn’t new— according to the WSJ the process was developed in Weimar Germany in the 1920s. South Africa used the technology to escape sanctions during the Apartheid era. Today, coal-rich, oil-poor China is hot for coal-to-liquids.

Closer to home, Cambridge-based Great Point’s coal gasification process, which includes carbon sequestering (not simply for sake of carbon sequesting of course, but for use in enhanced oil recovery) looks pretty good on paper. Depending on how much biomass is used as a feedstock, Great Point claims that its Bluegas technology can actually be net carbon negative.

bluegas_process

The real question is will federal regulators, who during the Bush Administration relaxed clean-air standards to allow Coal plants to postpone cleaning up emissions, actually make utilities spend the additional money required to do what is theoretically possible to reduce the damage done by using coal?

Clean(er) Coal costs more than dirty coal. Does the political will exist to enforce cleaner technologies which will cause rate-payers to pay more for electricity? Obama has said he’s open to the idea of clean coal technology. At this point in time, however, the only thing ‘clean’ about it is the carbon sequestering the industry is obliged to do under state and federal regulations. As more facts indicate the true costs and effects of making ‘clean coal’ a widespread production mandate for our energy needs, political opinions will be sharpened and sides taken.

As the price of oil falls, interest in goofing around with coal, shale, and tar-sands will most likely wane, just as it did in the 70s. Greatpoint’s technology began life back when the Disco was King. Will we all be wearing silver unitards and popping food pills before pilot efforts turn into wide-scale deployment?

Wind power employs more people than the coal industry? Soon…

One of our favourite energy blogs–Bright Green Blog–featured a story today comparing the number of jobs in  power creation to the number of jobs in the coal industry. Apparently Fortune claims the number of people in the wind power business was greater that entire coal industry (which generates almost 50% of our energy needs). After a torrent of emails, Fortune was forced to correct–the number of people involved in all aspects of wind power is roughly equivalent to the number of coal miners in the US. (85,000 v 81,000).

No it's not a new 12 meter yacht. It's a blade for a wind turbine-manufactured in Windsor. Colorado.

It's not a new 12 m yacht, but a wind turbine blade manufactured at the Vestas factory in Windsor, CO.

No matter what the final numbers, it brings to light an interesting debate-one that will continue as more alternative sources are needed–and become available– to put energy onto our national grid. Like other alternative energies, wind power is a growth industry. Therefore a great deal of capital–financial and human–is now being spent on building infrastructure for the industry. Coal industry employment, after experiencing a large decline in manpower when mining methods and energy generation technology improved throughout the 7os and 80s, has stayed relatively stable over the last 15 years. Until the concept of clean coal technology becomes a reality, it is unlikely the industry will add many jobs in the near future. It’s hard to compare the two industries because they are at such different stages of development.

Our economic recovery, however, is largely dependent on generating new jobs. Many of these jobs will come from the adoption and installation of new energy technologies and infrastructure. It also represents one of the most immediate ways to add high value jobs to our economy.

Until the last couple of years most of the breakthrough technology in alternative energy generation was from outside the US–principally Europe. The wind and solar industries have now reached critical mass in the US. As you can see from the photo above, we now have enough demand to develop and manufacture alternative energy generation technologies in the US.

Also, it should be pointed out that unlike coal and oil–which are commodities with market driven prices–renewable energy sources, like the wind and sun, can’t be ‘owned’. Which explains why they are still free.