Prospect of sustainable and secure energy in the People's Republic of China

Abstract

Energy has played an important role in China for achieving its impressive growth rates and the rapid industrialization of past decades. However, the cheap energy supply came from heavily polluting energy generation methods using fossil fuels, primarily coal. Severe pollution has made the Chinese energy regime highly unsustainable, with adverse effects on the environment and the health of the population. China has realised that a way to overcome this problem is the promotion of the utilization of renewable energy and the government has made their first efforts. Moreover, the country has to engage actively in ensuring energy security. Particularly, oil consumption is growing, which makes China increasingly dependent on oil imports, the prices of which can be at times volatile and unreliable. Also for this case, renewable energy promises to be a fruitful option. This thesis explores the capacities and possibilities the Chinese government has in renewable energy deployment and the environmental and economic benefits such a change would bring. Furthermore, decentralised energy, as the energy paradigm of the future, being highly economic and efficient, is analysed in the specific case of China. Moreover, flue gas treatment methods are presented, being indispensable in any case in the short-term perspective and being an important preliminary step to halt the deterioration of the already vulnerable environmental situation of the country.