By taking full advantage of its wind resources, China has the potential to relinquish it's dependence on coal, say researchers. China currently builds the equivalent of two coal-fired power plants per week to feed its growing appetite for electricity.
Using meteorological data from varied sources, Michael McElroy of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and colleagues mapped out wind speeds across China and identified the spots where turbines could generate enough electricity to make a profit, given the current price of wind-based electricity. Deploying farms in the windiest areas would be most cost-effective, at 5.8 US cents per kilowatt-hour or less, and could displace 23 per cent of the nation's current coal-fired electricity. But if turbines were also installed in less optimal areas, they could meet the entire projected electricity demand in 2030 — twice current consumption — at a cost of 7.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Though more expensive, this is still competitive with current prices.
China clearly has the wind capacity to replace coal, but doing so would cost trillions. A more tractable goal, say the authors, would be to reduce the growth of power-sector emissions 30 per cent by 2030, which could be achieved with a $900-billion investment in wind energy.
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Barnett, A. Price of power. Nature Clim Change 1, 110–111 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/climate.2009.91
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/climate.2009.91
