Forty Two wrote:Hermit wrote:Hermit wrote:Forty Two wrote:China generates about 70% of its power from coal and that will go up 20%, or to about 84% , by 2020.
Where do you get those figures from?
You do realise that even if one accepts the increase in coal fire capacity to be 20%, the percentage of its power from coal and that
will not go up 20%, or
to about 84% of total electricity generation by 2020. in fact, the link you cite says that
it will go down to 55%. In part that has probably something to do with
China investing 120 billion dollars a year in renewable energy generation.
By actually posting links that contradict your assertions you have confirmed that your increasing hysteria regarding anything "left" has caused you to take leave of the real world for the world of "alternative facts".
Fair point - and that was an error on my part there. The 84% is not correct, because while they are increasing the coal generated power by 20%, their total power usage is going way up, so other sources are growing even faster. That does not change the fact that the coal portion is increasing 20%, and they are constructing coal fired plants like they're going out of style.
Also, "By comparison, the agency said it would increase non-fossil fuel sources from about 12% to 15% of the country’s energy mix over the same period." So, that means fossil fuel sources, like coal, oil and other fossil-derived fuels, will make up 85% of the power generating sources. So, while not coal exclusively, they are still massively relying on fossil fuels. the "non fossil fuel sources" are increasing from 12 to 15%.
So now you realise that your initial claim – power from coal and that will go up from 70% to about 84% by 2020 – is total bullshit, that it will actually go down. That's cool.
So, what next? Look at facts for a change? No such luck. You change the goal posts instead by claiming that China is constructing coal fired plants like they're going out of style. Yes, China
is constructing new coal fired power plants, but it has also
cancelled 103 planned projects, (54 gigawatts) on some of which construction had already begun. The New York Times reports that this comes on top of last year's
halt to construction work on 30 large coal-fired power plants (17 gigawatts). Your statement is just an emotion-laden red herring. Bereft of any concrete figures it seeks to belittle the fact that the percentage of coal-generated electricity has been dropping for a number of years and will keep dropping in the years to come. Looks to me like coal-powered electricity production is going out of fashion.
As for your claim that fossil fuel sources make up 85%, you're wrong too. If you download the relevant spreadsheet from BP's
Statistical Review of World Energy you'll discover that they made up 86% in 2015.
You'll also discover that in the same year the figure for the USA was 84%. So, I ask rhetorically: What's your point?
That China is not pulling its weight? Compared to whom? And where is your evidence anyway? Have a look at
another page of BP's site, which contains some quick facts about China. It points out that whereas growth in energy consumption has risen by 1.5% over the previous year, coal consumption has dropped by 1.5%. It also mentions the fact that "while coal remains the dominant fuel, accounting for 64% of China’s energy consumption, this was the lowest share on record and down from recent highs of 74% in the mid-2000s". On the other hand there was a 69.7% growth in China’s solar power production since the previous year. Now, coal production in the USA declined by 10.4% in the same time, but Trump is determined to reverse the trend, isn't he? So I ask again: Compared to whom is China not pulling its weight?
I'm not saying everything is alright with China. I most certainly would not want to live there. But for crying out loud, shed your ideological blinkers. They blind you from seeing facts, and the facts you don't see are not exclusively hidden in far left sites – unless of course BP, Wikipedia, The New York Times et cetera are far left.