By now you’re seeing the trend here: the world’s biggest city, the world’s longest canal, biggest airport, longest high speed rail network and underwater tunnel. So the fact that China is building the world’s largest Wind Power Farm too shouldn’t surprise you. The Gansu Wind Farm Project will produce 20 Gigawatts of power by 2020, and will cost nearly $20 billion to build. Turbines are going up at the staggering rate of 35 per day across the three areas that make up the power base. In 2012, Gansu’s capacity surpassed the total wind-generated-electricity produced by all of the United Kingdom, and it’s just the largest of six mega-wind farms currently under construction throughout China.
But China isn’t embracing wind just to reduce its carbon emissions, it’s doing everything it can to simply keep the lights on. Some parts of the country with booming middle class populations suffer persistent electricity shortages because, just like us, people want refrigerators, dishwashers, washer and dryers, and computers in their homes, but there’s only so much energy to go around.
So China’s State Council is pushing for an across-the-board renewable strategy to reduce its dependence on oil, coal and gas, the finite resources of the 20th century whose extraction and consumption are subject to constant geopolitical tensions.
As a result, since 2013, China has led the world in renewable energy production, with a total capacity of 378 installed Gigawatts, coming from projects as wide-ranging as Gansu to hydroelectric power plants like the Three Gorges Dam, which spans the Yangtze River and is the world’s largest power station of any kind. In just the last 10 years, China has increased its solar panel production 100-fold to become the world’s leading manufacturer of the technology.
With China now pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere than the number two and three emitting countries – the US and India – combined, it’s vital for the future of the planet that it continues using MegaProjects to create a lot more Megawatts of clean, green power.
Thanks for watching. Click the like button to help share this video, it really helps me out. Until next time, for TDC, I’m Bryce Plank.