vina wrote:
I was in fact struck by the amount of coal and energy that China uses. According to this first comprehensive survey of China's power sector
Greener Plants, Grayer skies? by MIT, the following is stark and stands out well.
It says the stereotype of
“China builds crap, it burns crap, and it doesn’t give a crap.”
is far more nuanced and that there have been pretty deep changes in the past 10 years.
It is truly a very interesting, good report in general. I spent great time to read the whole article. Strikingly, your reading ability is a total failure. The whole point of this report is to challenge the convention wisdom of “China builds crap, it burns crap, and it doesn’t give a crap.” It was clearly written on page 6 right after this "crap" quote.
from MIT report wrote:(page 5) The Conventional Wisdom
......
(following in page 6)
Taken together, these three points – about technology, fuels, and political context – fit
together into a single punch line. In the bluntest terms, “China builds crap, it burns crap, and it
doesn’t give a crap.”
Conventional Wisdom Challenged: MIT’s 2007 China Energy Survey
Your reading teacher would give you an F.
vina wrote:
The MIT report is extremely interesting. Contrary to what the Chinese posters seem to say, the definition of a "large" plant in China is > 300MW and contrary to the impression posted here of the bulk of chinese plants being super/ultra critical with 600/800/1000 MWs and HVDC lines evacauting, that picture is not true. Just like India the recent Chinese plants are that kind (India has an advantage, our plants are coming up now, we don't have a legacy problem and the private guys putting up plants after the power sector has been liberalized are putting up the latest plants with cutting edge tech. Our older plants too are pretty good and have all environmental safeguards and stuff like SO2 scrubbers and particle traps etc built in and always had them).
There is absolutely nothing wrong in the definition of a "large" UNIT (the paper and Chinese government here definite generator unit, totally different from plant) as >300MW, man, your reading ability is a total failure. No expert will have question about that. It doesn't mean all Chinese large units are only 300MW. Actually the report gave the number of Chinese coal-fired generator prior 2007 in each catalogue
page36, table2.2
Table 2.2 MIT Survey Sample as Percent of National Coal-Fired Total (Units)
Sample National Total % of Total
Under 100MW 161 4508 3.57%
100-199 26 480 5.42%
200-299 20 245 8.16%
300-399 30 534 5.62%
500 0 8 0.00%
600-699 12 213 5.63%
700-800 0 8 0.00%
900-1000 1 8 12.50%
Total 250 6004 4.16%
Sources: NBS, Electricity Yearbook, 2007; CEC Draft Estimates 2008; Authors’ calculations.
So prior to 2007, China has 534 (300-399MW level), 8 (500MW level), 213 (600-699MW level), 8 (700-800MW level) and 8 (900-1000MW level) units in operation, excluding those still under construction then. How many >300MW units are in operation in India now? We are even not comparing prior to 2007.
As I said, 2007 is a big turning point in Chinese energy policy because of the pressure in global warming. Chinese put much more in those reusable clean energy instead of coal. Currently China is only building >600MW generator units except very a few exceptions. From this source
http://www.cpnn.com.cn/ttxw/201003/t20100326_310672.htm (in Chinese)
by March, 2010, there are 24 1000MW units in operation and 68 1000MW units under construction in China.
And China is decommissioning many old small generators right now, >10,000MW every year and 50,000MW in 4 years, even some old 300MW units will be out.
Yes, China is still lagging in coal-based power plants efficiency in general to developed nations, mainly Japan and EU, but getting close to US
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/world ... .html?_r=1
However, China NEVER lagged this to India.
http://www.hitachi.com/environment/show ... power.html

* Source: IEA, Energy Balances of OECD and Non-OECD Countries (2004)
The gap is only getting wider now.