We are simply looking at the yin yang with China. On the one hand, we have its most important cities immersed in the most excessive pollution due to dependence on fossil fuels, while on the other hand it continues breaking investment records and use of renewable energy year after year.
Y the speed with which the transition is being achieved is such energy, that it is quite difficult to get an idea of the plans for the near future. These days ago the country has posted your five-year plan for the energy sector, in which it sets targets that would have been celebrated as spectacular just a couple of years ago.
The consumption of coal will be limited below its peak level in 2013-2014 like clean energies, they will achieve 15 percent. Even preliminary data shows that China has continued to hold those records and pass those targets in 2016.
On the renewable energy front, in 2015, China set the world record for the highest installed solar capacity in one year. In 2016, the country has broken that record by doubling the facilities to three soccer fields per hour. Simply amazing.
The solar energy capacity target for 2020 is almost about to be reached next year, two years ahead of schedule.
Regarding the use of fossil fuels, the coal consumption has fallen in the last three years. C02 emissions appear to have been flat. As a result of lower total energy demand and a higher share of clean energy, CO2 emissions will be lower than given by the target.
The big challenge is creating enough space for vast amounts of renewable energy capacity to fit into the grid. Basically china you are in a difficult transition, chaotic and fast from coal to clean energy, with all the challenges that will come with it.