Bloomberg News reports that China approved the construction of new nuclear reactors for the first time since the Fukushima tsunami disaster in 2011 as the biggest polluter seeks to drive protective masks out of fashion.
The Bloomberg chart of the day compares the total electricity output of China with amounts generated from thermal coal, hydroelectric power and atomic reactors. The world largest energy consumer derived 77 per cent of its electricity from coal and gas-fired utilities last year, compared with 17 per cent provided by hydropower and 2.4 per cent by nuclear, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics compiled by Bloomberg.
China approved two reactors this month as it vowed to cut coal use to meet terms of a carbon-emissions agreement reached in November between President Xi Jinping and U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama. About 370 billion dollars will be spent on atomic power over the next decade, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates. Plans to triple nuclear capacity by 2020 to as much as 58 gigawatts - almost equal to the total electricity resources produced by Australia - were frozen after the Fukushima incident in 2011.
China is in a race with itself to reach a nuclear-power goal set for 2020 that is concurrent with a coal-reduction plan, Tian Miao, an analyst at North Square Blue Oak Ltd., a London-based researcher, said in Beijing. Because it normally takes five years to build one reactor, the program needs to be ramped up from now on. China has 24 reactors in operation and another 25 under construction, according to the World Nuclear Association.
France gets about 75 per cent of its electricity generated by nuclear, making it the world leader, while the global average is about 11 per cent, WNA data show. Whatever money is spent will only put a dent in the importance of coal, which is still expected to make up almost two-thirds of their power mix in 2030, said Wood Mackenzie Ltd., an Edinburgh-based energy consultant.
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