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Greening of China's Electric Power System: 2021 Update

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

John A. Mathews  and
Carol X. Huang
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Abstract

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China operates the world's largest electric power system, which over the course of the 21st century has been consistently greening at the margin, even as the whole energy system and the manufacturing system it powers remain largely black. In this article we update our argument to reveal how in terms of capacity, of electricity generated and of investment, China's electrical system is continuously greening and within less than five years, would be expected to be more green than black in terms of generating capacity. We demonstrate how the sourcing of generating power from hydro, wind and sun is becoming ever more significant, outranking the contribution from nuclear.

Keywords

ChinaRenewable Electric PowerNuclear PowerGreening of Electric PowerElectrification
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 18 , October 2022 , e2
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2022

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