The Stumbling Blocks That May Be Encountered In China's "Energy Transition"

It is not easy for China to seek to establish a "green and low-carbon power system." Today, China is the world’s largest energy consumer, accounting for 23% of global primary energy demand, and it is also the largest coal consumer, which poses a huge challenge to its green transformation. To balance this situation, China is actively investing in renewable energy and establishing economic incentives for non-public sectors to change their consumer culture. China is already a major investor in renewable energy worldwide. In 2015, China surpassed Germany as the country with the largest installed capacity of solar energy in the world. It also invested in more than 4,000 projects involving energy conservation and structural adjustment, and supported renewable energy producers through on-grid tariff (TiF) and low-interest loans. China plans to invest another 360 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 and strive to implement the goals of the Paris Agreement. Despite these efforts, China still faces innumerable inconsistencies affecting the implementation of policies. The following will analyze: market forces, technical constraints, social stability and physical environment and other related constraints.