First things first, what is renewable energy? Renewable energy can be defined as the energy that is obtained from natural resources like the wind, rain, sunlight, tides, geothermal heat, etc. It is a much better alternative to non-renewable energy such as coal, fossil fuels, etc because of its ability to be naturally replenished. Also, it does not cause pollution and is in sync with Mother Nature. Things can’t get any better than that!
Now even the Chinese government realized the benefits of renewable energy and established a fresh law. According to this law, all the operators that work on power grids must purchase the electricity that is produced by the generators powered by renewable energy for a greener, cleaner China.
China is basically coal-dependent when it comes to energy, and this law is established with a view to raise the consumption of the renewable sources of energy in terms of proportions.
According to Xinhua news agency, the standing committee belonging to the National People’s Congress adopted the amendment to the 2006 law on renewable energy. This amendment authorizes the energy department of the State Council, the state power authority and the State Council finance department to evaluate the proportion of production of power by renewable energy to the capacity of generation of power on the whole during a particular time period.
China is not all alone in this scheme; several countries made requirements that the grid operators should give priority to production of renewable energy from the in spite of it being an expensive affair in comparison to the load plants that are coal-fire based.
Because of the Chinese government subsidies, a boom (unexpected huge growth) in the wind power plants resulted in a huge portion of loss of wind capacity because in some places, the placement or location of wind farms aren’t in the right direction for optimum harnessing of the wind energy. Another reason is that there is no proper connection to the grid sometimes.
According to Xinhua, a majority of the machines for harnessing wind power in China is not properly linked to the grid. And a majority of China’s wind power harnessing machines is set up in the regions that are wind-swept. Gansu and Inner Mongolia are some examples of these regions. The power demand in these regions is low. What’s more, some of the coal generators that are most reasonably priced can be found in some parts of Mongolia and hence these are preferred over wind energy sources, which are pushed out of the market.
Hence, China must come up with efficient solutions to solve this problem such as grids that are more flexible and smart. This would be a huge benefit in aspects more than one.
The target set by China is to make the percentage of renewable energy to reach at least 15% of the power generation in the country by the year 2020.