• EnergyElectricity:

• production: 2.8344 trillion kWh (2006)

• consumption: 2.8248 trillion kWh (2006)

• exports: 11.19 billion kWh (2005)

• imports: 5.011 billion kWh (2005)

• Electricity - production by source:

• thermal: 77.8% (68.7% from coal) (2006)

• hydro: 20.7% (2006) • other: 0.4% (2006) • nuclear: 1.1% (2006)

Oil:production: 3.631 million bbl/day (2005) consumption: 6.534 million bbl/day (2005) and expected 9.3 million bbl/day in 2030 exports: 443,300 bbl/day (2005) imports: 3.181 million bbl/day (2005) net imports: 2.74 million barrel/day (2005) proved reserves: 16.3 billion bbl (1 January 2006) Natural gas:production: 47.88 billion m³ (2005 est.) consumption: 44.93 billion m³ (2005 est.) exports: 2.944 billion m³ (2005) imports: 0 m³ (2005) proved reserves: 1.448 trillion m³ (1 January 2006 est.)

China’s energy mix: renewables• BEIJING—Winds rush through the capital city of China,

blowing dust storms that envelop it in grit from the encroaching Gobi Desert each spring. Last year, the government finally took advantage of those winds, installing 33 wind turbines manufactured by domestic company Xinjiang Gold Wind at the Guanting wind power field to harvest this energy and use it to supplement the electricity provided by polluting coal. Those suburban turbines began turning in earnest on January 20, providing 35 million kilowatt-hours of electricity to Beijing through July, or roughly 300,000 kilowatt-hours a day.

That supplied 20 percent of the power to the city's Olympic venues, and helped the country meet its pledge of a green Olympics. The government's commitment to renewable energy is real: the Chinese government recently doubled its target for installed wind power to 10 gigawatts by 2010 after the previous goal of 5 gigawatts was met three years early.

• But, by 2007 only 6 GW was being produced (0.6% country’s energy needs)

• "Developing and utilizing renewables shall be an important part of building a new socialist countryside," the plan states, while also calling for the development of 50 entire counties in Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdon, Guangxi, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia to be built by 2010 that get 50 percent of household energy from renewable sources.

"China is already one of the top renewable energy producers in the world," says climate and energy campaigner Liu Shuang of environmental group Greenpeace. "Renewable energy can provide 50 percent of the energy needs in China," she adds, and the environmental group projects that 37 percent of that renewable energy could come from wind and solar power alone.

But the reality is that, like the wind,

renewable power in China is a fickle source • There are 158 wind farms in China, but

because land is very precious in China, some places will not be allowed to build wind farms

• Offshore wind farms may fill the gaps, providing up to 750 gigawatts of electricity. In recent years, typhoons have wreaked havoc on poorly designed wind farms in the south of the country. This does not bode well for China's ability to build offshore!

• China remains among the world leaders in building wind turbines, or at least their components. Even when foreign companies such as General Electric supply the turbines as much as 70 percent of the components are made in China, everything except for bearings and electrical controls.

• China is also the number one producer of solar photovoltaics, with more than 200 manufacturers creating 1700 megawatts of the panels in 2007, says the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA), or nearly half of the world's total production of 3,800 megawatts

• Almost none of that remained in the country, however. "99 percent goes outside," says CREIA (Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association) secretary general Li Junfeng. "The local market is very limited because [PV] is too expensive.“ All of that production means that China is bearing the burden of the pollution that can go along with the manufacture of such renewable energy for other countries—whether the acid rain–forming sulphur dioxide emitted from making the steel in a wind turbine's blade or the noxious chemicals left over after manufacturing specialized silicon, or glass, that can turn sunshine into electricity

• So that leaves dams as the cleanest, cheapest option for electricity generation in China. And the country is blessed with abundant resources in that area: 400 million kilowatts of potential of which only 110 million kilowatts have been developed, according to government figures. "Within 30 to 50 years, hydro will be the main energy we should rely on," predicts Lai Hun Suen, a professor of sustainable development at Chongqing University and a municipal government official.

Dams accounted for 16 percent of total electricity generation in 2005, thanks to the completion of Da Chao Shan, Gong Bo Xia and Three Gorges dams. But it is a technology that has proven problematic in developed and developing countries—witness the ecological problems brought on by the Three Gorges—and most of the undeveloped locations for hydropower are located in the west of the country while the majority of electricity use is in the east.

Nevertheless, "China will try to rely on hydropower," Lai says. "It is a choice we made when we had no other choice."

The three gorges dam

• For over three decades the Chinese government dismissed warnings from scientists and environmentalists that its Three Gorges Dam—the world's largest—had the potential of becoming one of China's biggest environmental nightmares. But last fall, denial suddenly gave way to reluctant acceptance that the naysayers were right. Chinese officials staged a sudden about-face, acknowledging for the first time that the massive hydroelectric dam, sandwiched between breathtaking cliffs on the Yangtze River in central China, may be triggering landslides, altering entire ecosystems and causing other serious environmental problems—and, by extension, endangering the millions who live in its shadow.

• Violent storms and floods that experts say are a consequence of global warming have hit 200 million people in China.

• Up to five million residents have been evacuated from their homes, while nearly 700 have lost their lives – a toll that threatened to climb yesterday as 69 miners remained trapped in a flooded shaft. Worse may be yet to come. Describing the floods as the most severe the country had suffered in a decade, Chinese officials cautioned that more deadly weather would wreak havoc before the end of the summer.

• The floods, an annual threat for China, have affected nearly 20 per cent of the country’s 1.3 billion population. The economic losses are estimated officially to be 52.5 billion yuan (£3.5 billion).

• Dangerously high water levels along the main rivers have led to mass evacuations, while hundreds of thousands of homes and millions of hectares of crops have been destroyed. More flash floods, downpours and landslides are expected over the next few days, the Red Cross said, starting an emergency appeal for aid. High temperatures have made life even more uncomfortable for those displaced.

Coal mining in China• China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world, and many of

China's large coal reserves have yet to be developed. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, China had end 2007 coal reserves of 114500 million tonnes, 13.51% of the world total. In 2007 China achieved coal production of 2536.7 million tonnes and consumed 1311.4 million tonnes oil equivalent.

• Northern China, especially Shanxi Province, contains most of China's easily accessible coal and virtually all of the large state-owned mines.

• In February 2006, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) revealed a plan to restructure China's coal sector and reduce fragmentation in the industry. Their goal is to establish five to six giant conglomerates in China's main coal-producing provinces and to close down all small coal mines by 2015. According to an industry report, China had 28,000 coal mines at the end of 2005, of which 2,000 were state-owned.

• China is becoming increasingly more open to foreign investment in the coal sector. The China National Coal Import and Export Corporation is the primary Chinese partner for foreign investors in the coal sector.

• The China Coal Import and Export Group, which distributes more than 80 percent of the total export volume, is the major coal export channel of China. The company plans to export 30.35 million tons of coal per year.

• The Chinese government is actively promoting the development of a large coal-to-liquids industry.

• Some have been burning naturally for thousands of years, but others are being set alight by small-scale mining operations seeking to cash in on soaring coal prices. Together, these perpetual fires are letting off a total amount of carbon dioxide each year equal to all the cars in the USA.

6,000 were killed in China's coal mines just last year, that’s 20 per day! The Sihe mine is being held up as a role model. It's one of China's largest and most modern coal mines, expected to produce 10 million tonnes of coal/year. Wen ShihuaIt is the first mine in China to tackle greenhouse gas emissions by

capturing the methane released from the earth as the coal is mined. Before, the methane was sent straight into the atmosphere. Now, it's diverted

into a small gas-fired power station

• Deserts make up a quarter of China's land - mostly in the north, and they're growing. After decades of over-grazing and poor use of land, infertile soil and erosion are the result - and the blinding red sandstorms that plague Beijing.

• Climate scientists say China's northern deserts are growing at an alarming rate, by several thousands square kilometres every year.