China, energy, policy, evolution, revolution: questions and answer

Abstract

China develops very fast and country's economy grows rapidly. Among many statistics one may find energy industry. As enormous economy needs vast amounts of energy, the power sector is a key-factor for its development. A scale of energy needs has influenced the installed capacity which is counted in hundreds of gigawatts. And this does not mean that nothing more will be installed. Quite the contrary, China still builds new power units. In the future, this trend will continue. Nevertheless, there are indications that the Chinese energy sector is no longer the same as before. China installs more and more renewable energy sources and develops its nuclear programme. On the other hand, the country's conventional energy sector (mainly coal sources) is still large. This results in a high-scale CO2 emissions, giving China title of "the biggest CO2 emitter in the world. " Mentioned dichotomy makes it necessary to analyze the energy policy of China and evaluate it in terms of recent changes that could be called "evolutionary," or "revolutionary" for Chinese energy sector.