China’s major oil companies continue to stretch their reach by buying oil fields from Iran, Africa, and South-East Asia—even attempting to buy America, another gas-guzzler’s, oil. China’s industrial boom has created yet another large draw on the world’s limited energy sources like oil, gas, and coal. And tensions are rising. The international community is peeved about China’s determination to push through a 25-year oil agreement with Iran before embargoes are placed on the nation and the United States rallied a quick and dirty defense when China attempted to buy its oil.
So China is looking to ease these problems with renewable energy. The developing nation has passed a law, which will come into effect next year, requiring power grid operators to purchase energy from renewable energy sources like biological liquid fuel, solar power, thermal power, and wind power. The law also provides tax breaks to renewable energy projects among other financial incentives. The goal is to improve their current renewable energy usage, which is less than 1% of total energy used, to 60 gigawats, or 10% of total energy, by 2010.
I don’t know how possible that goal is to achieve, but it is certainly an admirable one, and I think it is very interesting that the government is requiring power grid operators to buy renewable energy. That will naturally increase demand and I imagine that renewable energy providers are scrambling to be ready to meet that demand.
Renewable energy is a common sense way to ease the competitive market for fossil based energy sources. It is also a good way for China to reduce pollution. As a result of the law’s passing and its hopefully positive effects, Yu Jie, China’s Greenpeace energy advisor, has said, “China could and should be a world leader in renewable energy development. This law has been long anticipated by the global renewable energy industry. If the definition of renewables and the details are right then the international community will get behind China and support its ambition to become an international clean energy powerhouse." China has passed a law that has the potential to revolutionize its energy sector. I hope that it will come to fruition.
On a side note, some of my friends have mentioned that China seems to have the best system for a developing nation, especially when compared to another such nation, India. They have a growing free market economy and a powerful central government that can simply order things to be done—like demolishing homes and farmland to build highways and building the Three Gorges Dam in a way that submerges massive numbers of communities. Or, in this case, ordering all power grids to purchase renewable energy. Could that happen in America—has it?
