Nuclear Energy generation increased 5% in 2020 over 2019. China’s nuclear energy production was 331 TWh for the first 11 months of 2020. China generated 349 TWh in 2019 and is on track to generate 367 TWh in 2020.
Hydro power in China was up 5% over 2019.
China’s 2019 power generation figures from the World Nuclear association seem slightly mismatching the China National bureau of Statistics for solar power.
China’s energy production was:
Type of Energy 2019 Generation 2020 Estimate
Hydro 1302 TWh (18%) 1366 TWh
Nuclear 349 TWh (5%) 367 TWh
Wind 406 TWh (6%) 413 TWh
Solar 117 TWh (3%) 141 TWh.
China National Bureau of Statistics reported:
* China’s wind power is up 11% over 2019
* China’s Solar power was up 8% over 2019
* China nuclear and hydro were each up about 5%.
SOURCES – China National Bureau of Statistics, World Nuclear Association
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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Nuclear power is carbon neutral and doesn't suffer from the intermittency problem of wind and solar.
Right now, that is true. But you have to see the problem and seek the solution.
Maybe they value not freezing to death in the winter and are willing to burn coal to stay warm.
Maybe they don't value their health. All that coal is slowly choking the life out of them.
Solar growth should have been much higher. Solar is dirt cheap. Recovery of investment would be quick.
Interesting numbers. What strikes me most about them, is that of the non-fossil energy sources, hydro is by far the biggest, more than the others combined, both in generation and in growth (in TWh, not %).
If I am not mistaken, China is the biggest producer of hydro electricity in the world.
Furthermore, from the larger table I understand that thermal power generation (mostly coal) is still 2.4 times as large as all non-fossil generation combined.
Why only China? There were very nice renewable numbers in the US and globally as a whole due to record low rates for solar and wind energy in 2020.
"The IEA main case scenario forecasts that the increase in net renewable electricity capacity additions will be almost 4% higher in 2020 than in 2019. This means the world is expected to install over 198 GW of renewable capacity this year, breaking another record and accounting for almost 90% of the increase in total power capacity. Higher additions of wind (+8%) and hydropower (+43%) are expected in 2020, while solar PV growth remains stable. More utility-scale PV plants will be installed, while growth in distributed PV systems decreases almost 8% as individuals and companies reprioritise investments in light of the economic crisis."
https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2020/renewable-electricity-2#abstract