The dynamic capital of Shandong province alone could embody China’s ambivalence on the climate crisis. The country that emits the most CO2 by far2 – a third of global emissions for just under a fifth of the Earth’s population – is also the one that, by far, is also making the most efforts to install renewable energy. The city of Jinan, bordered by the Yellow River to the north and the sacred Mount Tai to the south, with its more than 5 million inhabitants, is under permanent construction; Both solar panel fields and new coal-fired power plants are rising from the ground.
“A lot of coal is still consumed because otherwise we would not have enough electricity, but we can imagine that one day green energy will replace it”He finds Chen Ying, who lives in the western end of the city, at the door of his house. This 36-year-old woman and her family directly benefit from the change. In 2023, at the beginning of summer, representatives of a solar panel installation company, commissioned by the State, approached them to offer to associate them with the photovoltaic acceleration policy, paying them to generate electricity on the roof of their house.
At first, the housewife and her husband, a truck driver, were suspicious: weren’t they demanding their property rights to usurp them or carry out some other scam? But the neighbors had already taken the step and the offer was attractive. It only took one day of work to install the panels, without having to do anything or spend anything. Since then, the family has received 60 yuan per panel per year, 3,600 yuan in total, or 460 euros, an important additional income.
Such programs are popping up across Jinan as China distances itself from the pack when it comes to installing renewable energy. It builds almost two-thirds of the solar and wind projects on the planet, according to the NGO Global Energy Monitor, based in San Francisco, eight times more than the projects underway in the United States. In July, six years ahead of schedule, it reached its goal of having installed 1,200 gigawatts of solar and wind energy by 2030, while the European Union stands at 480 gigawatts. But in fact, 59.6% of Chinese electricity still came from coal in the first half of 2024. This figure, which fell below the 60% threshold, illustrates the difficulty of integrating these photovoltaic capacities into grids and manage them in a stable way.
You have 75.36% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
