Teaching the country to power down

Power shortages have spread to more provinces this summer. Though the power generation industry has grown quickly, it is still being outpaced by growing demand for consumption to advance China's industrialization, urbanization and improving living standards.

It is estimated that the country's power supply is 30 million KW short of demand, around 1.5 times the total power generation capacity of Vietnam.

The future growth potential of power generation is limited in China, given the controversy and obstacles surrounding hydropower, nuclear power and coal power. Energy imports are subject to various unpredictable security risks. Clean energy sources, such as solar and wind power, cannot be relied upon as a primary source of energy for China due to their expense and scale limit.

Though its modernization procedure is just starting, the power generation capacity of China has nearly matched  the US. China's population is four times that of the US, but China cannot afford a similar power consumption differential.

Perhaps we have to give up copying the industrialization pattern of Europe and the US, which was built on the resources of the entire globe. China has to move its modernization forward in a more efficient way, consuming far less energy.

There are many ways to make this happen. First China has to prioritize energy saving, although this will dent people's appetite for cars, big houses and capacious banquets. Scaling down our lifestyles will significantly cut energy consumption.

The summer time, briefly adopted, should be reconsidered. Inconvenient as it is, we will endure its implementation if the energy saved is considerable enough. Additional measures, such as alternating working hours and enforcing paid vacation can help alleviate power waste.
Though holding few energy resources, China's energy waste is astonishing. Freezing or sweating temperatures in office towers, the short life spans of buildings, and the low efficiency of urban planning consume prodigious amounts of energy.

Due to safety and ecological concerns, the Chinese are understandably wary of building more hydropower and nuclear power stations. However, the reasonable solution may be in finding safe solutions, while not completely denying these stations. The modernization of 1.3 billion people is bound to be more risky than in smaller countries. This is not ideal, but we have to confront reality.