How will China meet its energy goal?

A group of Stanford students spent their recent spring break in China, examining the issues of economic growth and energy demand. The students used TerraPass to offset the emissions from their trip. In this guest post, Kathleen Livelli provides impressions and photos from the trip.

China’s goal is to quadruple GDP by 2020 while only doubling energy use. This is an ambitious leap in efficiency, but how will China get there? And is it enough?

Choking air pollution is the first noticeable sign of China’s energy-use problem. A layer of smog hangs over almost every city. China feeds two thirds of its energy needs with coal, which, in addition to smog, contributes to climate change, acid rain, and mercury pollution in waterways.

Coal pile and power plant. Photo by Bridgette Steffen.

Much of the rapid growth in energy use is being fueled by the continued demand for Chinese manufactured goods. Cities are growing at much too fast a rate for the government to control layout and planning. Cranes are everywhere and clusters of new, inefficient buildings sprout up by the minute.

But it isn’t all hopeless. China’s energy-use per capita is still only one eighth that of the United States. Virtually every light bulb is a compact fluorescent. Chinese building codes are evolving to embrace greener standards. Although demand for cars is exploding, bicycles are still a major form of transportation. At rush hour in Kunming, bicycles are as thick as cars, and bike lanes are as wide as city streets.

Rush hour in Kunming. Photo by Kathleen Livelli.

Solar hot water heaters are the standard in both urban and rural areas. In some cities, rows of these heaters cover the rooftops. Wind farms are under development.

Rooftop solar water heaters. Photo by Bridgette Steffen.

The scale and rapidity of growth in China mean what happens here matters. Despite rising energy demand, China has tremendous potential for green growth, but only with concerted efforts from both inside and outside the country.

More photos after the jump.

Contruction at the Three Gorges dam. Photo by Kathleen Livelli.

At the Three Gorges Dam, concerns raised by students about silting and seismic activity went unaddressed. The dam has displaced 1.3 million people, who have been given new housing on steep slopes that barely support farming. The Chinese sturgeon, an endangered fish found in the Yangtze River, will likely be wiped out by this massive project, the few survivors kept in museum tanks.

Panoramic view of power plant turbines. Photo by Raphael Varieras.