China could replace coal with wind
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- photi
- added this
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more from Green:
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/1191/china-could-replace-coal-wit...
It's clear that China is taking on renewable energy projects at a fast pace. The country has doubled its installed wind power every year for the past five years and a new study shows the country should keep it up. Researchers from Harvard and Beijing Tsinghua University have found that China could meet all of their electricity demands from wind power through 2030.The scientists came up with meteorological and financial forecasts that show that China can run on wind alone. They mapped the wind potential for different regions and then assumed that each had a smattering of 1.5 MW turbines. They excluded metro areas or unusable terrain. Once they calculated how much energy each area could generate, they then came up with the cost of the energy.
They discovered that many areas, especially northern and western parts of the country, could generate energy at about 6 - 8 cents/kWh. This meant 6.96 trillion kWh could be generated annually at a profit, which is twice the current energy demand and close to what the demand is expected to be in 2030.
If China chose this route instead of adding more coal, it could prevent 3.5 billion tons of CO2 from being emitted.
Since China is already installing wind at a rapid pace, the researchers think it's entirely possible that they could make these projections a reality. The major hurdle for the country would be upgrading and expanding their transmission system to handle new wind farms.
While a world powered by renewable energy is still a long ways off, it's really promising to hear of studies like these that show that it's definitely accomplishable.
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- groups:
- Green
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- tags:
- China, Energy Efficiency
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bigred5
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As a nation we should get started on this.
As citizens we should start at home
They are getting prepared for the future , a low cost energy future
- 5 months ago
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bigred5
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LotusPower
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Well, Hunzedog, I would say the government HAS BEEN in bed with big energy. When you elect former oil execs as the president and VP and allow virtually unrestricted corporate money to fund campaigns, what do you expect? But pretty far from a secret, I'd say. Do you really think that the fact that Iraq has the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world didn't have anything to do with the trumped up nonsense that led us to war there? In contrast, China has, over the years, relied on patient diplomacy to deal with their problems in Hong Kong and Taiwan and they are currently using massive government funds to build infrastructure, green and otherwise, to allow China to continue economic growth at an 8% rate while the rest of the world falls off the economic cliff brought about by Republican deregulation of the financial business. So look at the effects of not wasting money on petro-wars and massive spending on political BS. So, is what we call "democracy" really serving the interests of the citizens?
- 5 months ago
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LotusPower
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besic
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Go China! I knew they were going to hand us our ass on a platter once again. Bush kept making sure that as long as we are polluting less then China we were somehow better and it was okay not to invest in green energy. How low we have fallen.
- 5 months ago
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besic
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hunzedog
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our government is in bed with big oil and big coal.
thats our dirty little secret......change that; change the country....we gotta fire em !
and good for china ! be nice to china ! we are their PETS - 5 months ago
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hunzedog
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stephenk29111
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I wish the US would take major steps like this. All we think of is the present day cost of things, we never look down the road to see how much money we could potentially save, the amount of pollution we could curve, and various other environmental benefits.
Its the same within the auto industry with ethanol/water being able to power cars, the technology is there but the industry refuses to change.
- 5 months ago
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stephenk29111
