The Benefits to China and East Asia in Tapping Remote Renewable Energy Resources

China has the world's largest population, and fastest growing economy. The energy requirements for the next several years have been determined at 15,000 MW annually. This infrastructure development is designed to supply the needs of a rapidly developing society, yet the environmental implications of such growth could be disastrous.

GENI is a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation in the United States committed to improving the quality of life for everyone without damage to the planet. Our primary focus is the research and education of the benefits to interconnecting electric power systems between regions and continents, which an emphasis on tapping remote renewable energy resources using high-voltage transmission.

As reported this summer at the recent CIGRE (International Conference on Large High-Voltage Electric Systems) in Paris, electric power can now be transmitted thousands of kilometers (7000 km for HVDC and 4000 km for HVAC). Mr. Maher Abaza, Minister of Energy and Electricity of Egypt, presented his scheme of linking the hydropower potential of the Zaire River in Central Africa to Western Europe for the mutual benefit of all nations. This would provide the electrical infrastructure for Africa's development, export a renewable resource to replace polluting fossil power in Europe, and deliver money back to Africa for development and debt repayment. Mr. Abaza also said that this plan is feasible on every continent.

Today, the economic and efficient transmission distances are much farther than any political boundary, or the thinking of most energy system planners (see CIGRE paper 37-12,1984 "Present Limits of Very Long Distance Transmission Systems). It was found that if the source of energy was cheap, the reliability and load losses were both acceptable even over tremendous distances. Similar thinking in China would allow energy trading with neighboring nations, and economic and environmental benefits to both.

The advantages of system interconnection are well known:

• load leveling -- daily time zone differences as well as seasonal variations in demand
• emergency back-up
• peak power savings
• deferral of addition capacity requirements
• increased system stability
• improved frequency and voltage control
• ability to retire environmentally unsound or older generation plants

China has common borders with Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. The potential benefits of trading electricity between these countries is tremendous. Since the world's two largest populations of China and India have different peak demand patterns, the interconnection between these countries would offer significant daily savings.

Just as important, abundant renewable energy sources surround China, and are within transmission reach of the population centers in the central region and eastern seaboard. Recent Chinese/Russian trade cooperation could enable the hydropotential of the Ob, Yenisey, Lena and Kolyma River systems to be tapped for import. The Penzhinaskaya Gulf in the Okhotsk Sea offers one of the world's premier tidal sites (80 GW potential). Both the Mongolian and Tibetan Plateau have enormous solar and wind potential. The new Variable Speed Wind Turbines (Kennetech Corp. in US) deliver power at US$0.05 per kilowatt -- competitive with base-load coal fired generation. The Himalayan Mountains could provide sufficient renewable power to meet the energy needs of China and India for several decades.

Our focus is on interconnections for the system benefits. Our focus is on tapping renewables for the environmental benefits. Since most of the generation currently planned in China is fossil-fired, the pollution can only be worsened as new coal plants are commissioned. The ability to tap large scale renewable resources in cooperation with neighboring nations will diminish the environmental impact on the region while enhancing the economic prosperity.

Quoting from the "China Power Projects Directory" (1994, editor Stuart Becker) -- "China has the largest hydro-electric power resources in the world with a potential generation capacity of 378,000 MW, but at present only 11% of resources are being utilized. The country also has one of the largest coal reserves in the world. The distribution of coal and hydropower in China is quite uneven geographically. More than 90% of hydropower resources are concentrated in the west China areas, two thirds of the coal reserves are scattered in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, while economically developed regions are principally located in coastal areas. It is then imperative to expand and interconnect power networks, by adopting DC links and AC transmission lines with 500 KV and higher voltage levels. China needs interconnected networks to be able to meet its needs by sending electricity from West to East as well as from North to South."