Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images
A man transports coal used for heating and cooking on a severely polluted Beijing day on January 23, 2013.
China Unlikely to Reduce Coal Use in the Next Decade
Demand is Strong and Developing Alternative Energy a Struggle
February 12, 2014
By Wang Yue, a reporter in chinadialogue’s Beijing office. This article first appeared in chinadialogue.
Coal will account for no less than sixty percent of China’s total energy use in the next decade, said Zheng Xinye, an energy economist at Renmin University. Currently, coal accounts for seventy percent of China’s total energy consumption. The Chinese leadership vowed to reduce the number to less than sixty-five percent in 2014.
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(Reuters) - Electricity prices in Texas soared this week as utilities scrambled for supplies to meet surging heating demand in the middle of a historic winter storm, prompting regulators to order a cap on prices.
Millions of Texans are without power after grid operator The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) instituted blackouts as electric heating demand overwhelmed generation, some of which was knocked offline by the extreme weather.
Next-day power for Wednesday at the ERCOT North hub, which includes the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, spiked to a record of $8,800 per MWh, a nearly six-fold jump from $1,489.75 the previous day.
Heat waves, droughts and deep freezes can all strain the electric grid, leading utilities to impose rolling blackouts. Climate change is likely to make these events more common.