Shepard: Unprofitable coal plants and insufficient renewables caused power rationing in China
Christian Shepard · Greenwashing at the Beijing Olympics · Feb 9, 2022 · at 16:11
Journalist Christian Shepard details the factors behind China's late-2021 energy shortages and grid strain during the post-pandemic industrial rebound.
0:00 / 0:34exact quote · 34.6s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“China's recovery from the pandemic has been fairly rapid, particularly in, in industry. So that means that a lot of electricity was being used, particularly as you're getting into winter. And Coal prices were down, and so coal-fired power plants, they weren't willing to run because they were going to be making losses. And there wasn't enough renewables ready and available to make up that shortfall. And so you started seeing power rationing across the countries and even some blackouts in certain areas for short periods.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Christian Shepard
Shepard: Villages near Beijing Olympic ski venues heat homes with cow dung
“There are these villages nearby there that, that were still burning you know, dried cow dung as a way of heating their houses.”
Shepard: Olympic green projects create an isolated bubble, not regional sustainability
“The idea that this is, is, is creating a sort of a brand new sustainable economic model, it doesn't really make sense, and it's why I keep going back to this idea of a bubble. You know, you rebuild for one area, you bring in perhaps new ways of powering things…”
Shepard: Beijing Olympics bought all electricity from renewables via green exchange
“It's all buying from renewables using this green exchange that Beijing has set up.”
Shepard: IOC lacks independent tools to verify host nation sustainability commitments
“The IOC doesn't have the tools in place to check up on whether or not the Olympics hosts are meeting their commitments. There haven't really been independent checks carried out in a sort of consistent way.”
Shepard: Holding hosts to sustainability promises risks alienating dwindling candidate pool
“If they start pressuring countries to really hold true to their promises, Then they might turn off the already dwindling number of host countries that are willing to put on these events.”
Shepard: Bureaucracy and regional coal dependence stall China's renewable transition
“And to get away from that and to start relying on renewable energies, it doesn't just take you know, a technical fix. It's sort of a bureaucratic issue. You got to rework departments. There are regions of the country that have been relying on this for growth. …”