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.
2013年的风力发电量可能会更高,估计为10%,但由于被称为“弃风”的问题——由于电网无法处理更多的电力,风力涡轮机被停止。为了帮助减少弃电,并实现官方2020年200吉瓦并网发电的目标,中国正在建设世界上最大的超高压输电系统。2022世界杯四强亚盘赔率目前正在建设的大量项目将把多风的北部和西部与中部和东部省份的人口中心连接起来。
Why is Wind Power Generation Surpassing Nuclear?
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. The government suspended new reactor approvals until late 2012 and reviewed the safety of both operational and under-construction reactors over several months. Officials also deferred until at least 2015 plans for reactors in non-coastal provinces, where water needed for cooling is highly polluted and in increasingly short supply.
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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