Quote:
Originally Posted by chedder
Coal is cheap. But Shenzen has been having blackouts because they can't get enough coal to keep up. Is it some great thing to have electric vehicles powered by coal? Maybe from a smog standpoint but from a carbon perspective is it any better? I'm genuinely asking.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/05/chin...an-export.html
Something like 78% of electricity in China is produced burning coal. |
So yes, EVs are still better from a lifecycle GHG perspective regardless of fuel source. The benefits are minimal of course if electricity generation is coal intensive (yes I've seen the study showing the it's worse, but there were serious flaws pointed in loads subsequent studies). Regardless, this is chicken and egg here. There is nowhere on earth installing more renewables than China, as almost half of all new solar installations on the planet are in China.
What most China climate hawks ignore is that China still has quite a ways to go to develop to the same extent we do. Their energy consumption per capita needs to increase to get to the same economic development standards we have (they currently use less than 1/3 per capita of what we do). They need more generation just for their economic growth and they need it soon. It's their stated aim to hit peak GHG before 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050. Therefore, it's a much different hill to climb for them as they're at a significant competitive disadvantage if they don't electrify rapidly and they cannot install enough wind and PV to do it. Secondly, in absolute amounts, coal consumption peaked in 2014 and is falling. As a percentage of generation, it peaked at 80% in 2005 and is at 64% now. They are cleaning their grid albeit slower than developed nations for the reasons mentioned above.
tl/dr: EVs are better regardless of generation fuel but if you don't build the EVs, then your burning petroleum anyways. Their plan is to build out EVs and clean up generation at the same time which is happening