China’s Electricity Problem 

1.1MV DC transmission lines?!?! That deserves a 45 minute video all on it's own.

You should totally do a whole video on the economics and ethics of services like Hello Fresh and whether they really live up to the ad reads in terms of claimed benefits

I find it kind of funny because about 10 years ago (or even longer, can't remember), I found out that China was building a new coal plant every week or something such, and my intuitive response was "Oh, so they got infinite coal or what? Won't that be a tough and costly transition when they finally run out?" and I guess this answers that

“China, like the US, is hot” Me in Beijing and freezing to death: Am I a joke to you?

"China has a problem" -9000 social credit

I spent a week in August in Florida where my grandmothers took me out to eat every night. You will not find a building without AC. In those months, you need to wear a t-shirt and carry a sweatshirt because you'll be inside your car with the AC blasting, then in 100 degree weather for 2 seconds before entering a restaurant where the AC makes it freezing. lol

Great video, you should look at the electricity problem in South Africa. Currently the power goes out for 4 hours a day which has happened consistently for over a decade now with almost no exceptions. The electricity market in South Africa is a complete monopoly with only one government owned business providing electricity to the entire country. The company is called eskom and has proved to be extremely useless. Due to this constant power outages in South Africa, it’s caused their economy to suffer drastically with one article I read even saying it causes South Africa to be 50% less attractive to foreign investors and companies due to the lack of electricity.

If you think China has electricity problems. You'd be shocked to see the electricity crisis South Africa is facing, going as far as declaring it a national state of disaster

Here in India not turning the AC on during summers just isn't an option. Soon the temperatures of north Indian cities are going to literally be unlivable, and ironically ACs are a big part of that :(

'All eyes are on China..' yes but we should also consider the fact that industrial footprint there is not just attached to local consumption but companies from all over the world manufacture their products in China. These companies and their country of origin should also be held responsible for these emissions. Just bcoz we keep our own home clean by polluting another country doesn't make us less responsible. Its a collective effort to save the only planet we have.

It's hard for modern Americans to imagine there was a time when an air conditioner in an automobile was an option...an option most people passed on (the technology has advanced considerably, so it's complicated, but still).

Amazing how China and US match so well in latitude and size. Definitely the beasts of the east and west.

We're building a new house for our family - here in Brazil we use masonry. The walls that will receive direct sunlight will be made of solid ceramic bricks while the others will use the hollow ones. Thick walls make for more expensive foundations and costs more but in the long run makes for a more comfortable and more energy efficient house. That's way, btw, the Empire State Building is the more energy efficient building in NY - the walls are made of stone.

It's crazy how people talk about temperature, but they don't talk about humidity. I wore a long-sleeve shirt and jeans in Nevada in 90°F (32°C) weather and I was fine. If I wore that in Florida or Georgia, in 60% humidity, I wouldn't be having a great time.

Nuclear is completely ignored.

I grew up in Shanghai and when I was a kid I did have frequent power cuts, especially in the summer, and had to light candles to do my homework. Now it's completely different, China has 30% of the world's power generation capacity, but some media are still stuck in the same place as 20 years ago!😮😮

6:26 It's inaccurate to say that Beijing doesn't regulate domestic coal prices. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) regularly summons leaders of coal mining companies and electricity corporations to "negotiate" a fair coal price. The price is not fixed but doesn't fluctuate as much as the international market.

One of them - the first - is in Brazil and connects Itaipu to São Paulo state. The DC power lines are also useful to insulate the grid's parts so a disturbance on one part won't propagate to other parts. Brazil's DC line has other reasons: Itaipu was built on the border of Brazil and Paraguay and, at the time, there was a decision to set up half of the generators in 60Hz and half in 50Hz. Brazil buys the 50Hz produced for Paraguay - retifies it at Itaipu and alternates it near São Paulo city. For those who don't know, Itaipu was, until the Three Gorge Hydro Power Plant was built, the largest in the world.

we can't ignore that China has the biggest population in the world, which is literally more than other the continent's risdents in Europe North America Australia combined

"For hours, Chinese cities went dark" That's like.... daily thing in the country I live..

Perfect video to why being an HVAC tech is a great job, money only increases with skill plus job security.

I thought I read somewhere that China had plans to drastically expand it's nuclear energy capabilities; I'm surprised there wasn't much discussion about that.

The UHV line shown at 8 minutes in was UHVAC ultra high voltage alternating current 1000kV Single circuit / 3 phase. UHVDC would have just 2 conductors (bipolar dc). It's all an amazing system. China has really stepped up their game they aren't messing around. Thanks for covering this stuff a rare treat.

China's coal may be plentiful but is of low quality which is ok for power production (albeit not as efficient as good quality coal). The coal Australia exported was of high quality metallurgical coal used for coking for blast furnaces used for steelmaking (the ore Australia also provides but not sanctioned) therefore essential for their economy, when China put sanctions on many Australian products there was always another country willing to purchase our goods especially coal

"China has a problem, it's getting hotter and it's getting wealthier" I know what it feels like... don't worry China, you're not alone

Another downside to relying so heavily on coal is that it’s not very adaptable. The grid’s demand is constantly fluctuating and utilities have to match the demand rather accurately or they risk either brownout or surge. This means you have to have a segment of your generation capacity devoted to matching the ebbs and flows of the grid. This is pretty easy in the US as this job is assigned to natural gas turbines. Regulating the generation of a turbine is a simple matter of restricting how much gas flows into the turbine. If more generation is needed, a gas turbine can go from cold to spin up and synced with the grid in about a half an hour. For coal, it’s not so simple. For a coal plant to heat up takes hours and regulating using a coal plant is highly inefficient. It isn’t a matter of throwing more coal on the pile. Generally, if you want to close regulate with a coal plant you have to throttle the turbine, which is less adaptive and still uses the same amount of coal as going full blast. Utility providers are much like farmers, using an almanac of previous years to predict the power peaks based on time of year, temperature, weather, etc, but even with the best predictions, grid providers can still be surprised. The US is fundamentally better equipped to deal with these fluctuations because the grid is built around fluid adaptability

Local solar and aircon use generally match very well. Location inefficiency is offset by lack of transmission losses.

Hey I love these useful informations and different perspective on this world issues wondering if you'll considering having a podcast channel?

You don't want high voltage lines working at 100%. If lines are at their limit shifting load and maintaining them becomes very difficult. Especially in the hotter months.

This was such an impressive video to watch, 20 minutes of densely packed information but in a format where every sentence served a purpose. The data was combined with sharp, insightful analysis that made it easy for those with no knowledge to understand and appreciate what they're being told. It's not even an especially interesting topic but after watching this, it feels interesting, important and I want to know more. Wendover and their sister channels have come so far recently.

Yeah so um they sometimes alert factories and stuff ahead of time to slow down power consumption. Here in Texas it sometimes just goes.

remember starting before Beijing Olympics in 2008, there were all news about china pollution and in the past 5 or 6 years there were no more about China pollution news. You know why? It was becasue if you want to talk about it you need to mention how successful they have done to fix the pollution. China with 1.4 billion people uses 5880 kWh per person per year while in USA with 3.3 million people uses up 12,100 kWh per person. China as World's factory still uses up much less energy per person than the USA.

Awesome! love your perspective. I currently make 106k/yr. No home or iπvestment and the job is in NY as I work from home. I need to do something quick or else I’m going to be paying thousands to the IRS come tax season. What can I do?

People figured this out over 100 years ago. My house is 120 years old in Australia, it's not fancy but it's got 12 foot high ceilings. In summer it's so cool inside wouldn't even think about air conditioning because all the heat rises to the ceiling and vents let the hot air out. Shame about winter though it's a bit cold.

Maybe adding nuclear power would help a lot, its kinda the highest output power tech around and its damn clean too, building lead-lined bunkers to store the waste that comes out every couple years when they need their fuel rods replaced is not that bad, we know how to seal the stuff away and we know how to reuse it now too for both space applications with RTGs or ultra-long-life low-power installations for experiments and/or sensors for weather and how much cosmic radiation is hitting us from both the sun (which is the main driver of the climate I mean sunlight is kinda responsible for about 108 PW of light and heat globally while mankind consumes just around 31 TW) and the rest of the galaxy, and nuclear can throttle slowly up and down with oil and coal based plants providing ride-through for those times that solar, wind and perhaps hydro inevitably go up and down, since batteries powering the grid is kinda not good for the environment at all, unless we figure out a way to make massive amounts of sodium-based batteries and/or really good gigantic supercaps that don't use loads of rare earth metals that are really expensive and also really dirty to mine and process, like cobalt and lithium are. Basically, nuclear good, renewable good but not something we can fully rely upon, fusion nowhere near viable yet (no exploding a tiny capsule and getting more energy out than the lasers is not viable that's an explosion not sustained fusion), and oil and coal power can be the thing that patches over the gaps in throttling nuclear up and down to match renewable ebbs and flows. In fact, those ultra-long-life sensor installations can be used to calculate when to throttle up and down nuclear plants depending on weather around solar and wind installations, know when wind will pick up or more sun will come through the clouds so it can be throttled down in time with the rising generation from renewable, or throttle back up when conditions deteriorate and sunlight wanes and wind weakens. The theory is simple, implementation will be a real pain in man's collective asses, it'll sure make a lot of jobs for people to find work in and it'll keep us going until the time if/when fusion finally becomes viable, in several decades or so at least methinks.

This analysis is spot on highlighting the disconnect between tightly regulating electricity prices and leaving coal prices unregulated. But it's absolutely missing the mark with renewables. These are financial losers, and they're not reliable (they really don't work when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing). The complaint that the high voltage power lines bringing electricity from the far west to the population centers are "underutilized" is BECAUSE OF THAT. Renewables are NOT the solution. Nuclear and future fusion are the solution. This is simply nuts to keep claiming that renewables are going to suddenly work if we just throw enough money at them.

Nuclear is the cleanest, the strongest and the safest if managed by competent people who run it properly with proper security measures and personnel. Especially if we use plutonium. We just need good public perception and proper political support with good investment capital and awareness.

12:20 This is the reason why price caps need to be handled with care. The power plant owners are smart and shut down production when coal prices rose. This is one of the reasons why price caps often lead to shortages.

In hindsight, ROFL at "virtually eliminated covid." 😂

If we ignore the fact that wind and solar energy extreme fluctuation(because you know...sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow) then maybe it may be competitive.

Nuclear is both the past and future of power generation. See info about coal exhaust vs total EVER nuclear waste. It's crazy. And it's important to remember that the nuclear accidents that have happened were the result of severe design flaws and/or negligence. We can figure out what to do with (nearly) indestructible crates of nuclear waste later, but this needs to be solved now.

4:36 I recognise that place. Had a project there some years ago when they were working on the plans for those floating solar panels. Nice to see it in this video, but at the time, they just got in my way.

In 2021, half of this video’s footages of China are filmed before 1991 lol.

5:26 thats not the only reason. there's also the fact that solar takes up 10 times more space, is unreliable and requires tons of precious medals

I have never noticed that China is a (kinda) similar shape to the continental USA before!

Replenished my language lexicon on economics and energy

Not touched upon explicitly in the video. As pointed out, the output cost is set by the government. But the input cost is not. So coastal power plants were used to purchasing coal from overseas, and have it delivered by shipping. So there was little or no possibility to purchase inland coal at input prices lower than output price. Since the coastal power plants does not usually purchase massive amounts from the inland, there are few or no rail transport. Meaning that coal had to be driven on trucks. So now you got 1. Higher demand for inland coal 2. Higher demand for trucking = Unprofitable to produce energy. This is how China faced an energy crunch.

Next Wendover Video: “How planes are the key to solving China’s electricity problem”

0:55 that person must be buying a lot of air conditioning units

around 5:00 you say that upfront cost of KW of coal is lower - this is not true actually - not anymore at least. it is more predictable power source for sure, but at least for AC - this doesn't matter as the peak solar power production obviously corresponds to peak AC usage.

To be honest, this year the Three Gorges reservoir in China's Yangtze River did not have enough water, and power shortages in areas around Sichuan did prevent residents from turning on their air conditioners. This is essentially a problem with grid planning. In fact, coal-fired power generation from the eastern and northern provinces cannot be transferred to the central provinces. In other words, China is a huge country with an unprecedented population and a shortage of resources. If you are truly an internationalist, think globally and don't always compare China to the US.

The ac problem can be found in most places as well, Africa, India, Australia... For me it's something that should be the world top priority and get better research funding from everyone just like EV had in recent times. Hopefully we will have a new innovation in these coming years,

I wanted to suggest a video idea. My company is trying to get a new plane for our fleet but we are able to find aircraft but they have no engines. It’s a trend that the engines are more often than not leased out separate from planes creating an interesting market for aircraft engines leasing apart from the whole package.

One big problem has with coal as a power source is that they have almost no rail-freight capability, so much of it has to be transported by truck. What - China has no rail-freight capacity? How can that be, they have railroads *everywhere*, don’t they? They have high-speed *passenger* rail everywhere. The government was infatuated with high-speed rail, so kept building it everywhere, despite almost no passenger demand for the majority of routes. As a result, they wasted billions on a vastly-underutilized passenger rail system instead of building freight infrastructure that would actually have benefited society :-/

Brilliant video.

It's obvious when an ad is about to begin because you break out the unwarranted compliments.

This sounds not too dissimilar from our Loadshedding here in South Africa. We literally have scheduled load reductions (balckouts) set by the government. The province of the Western Cape is the only province that can alleviate this problem buy using several different means. Also, our energy provider is literally a state run monopoly

Excellent report.

Yall need to reresearch your Ultra high voltage section. 7:15 - 9:00 As a electrical technician. That information is just wrong

The power outage I experienced in Bayarea CA in a year is more than I experienced in China in a decade.

Interesting. The domestic supply issues could point to why they're reaching out and investing in opening mines in other countries (like canada for example)

Solar does not work when the sun is not shining, and wind power does not generate electricity when the wind isn’t blowing. Grid-level batteries are being developed, but they are not yet ready for broad deployment.

Didn’t you see the blizzard that left thousands of stranded in massive snowstorms

Brazil has also experienced two powerful droughts, which affected our energy production because more than 50% of it comes from hydroelectric power plants. The solution the government found was to encourage the construction of new natural gas thermoelectric plants, which raised controversy because of the high costs and pollution. On the other hand, wind power production is growing at a fast pace and is already the third largest source of energy.

I don’t know Sam, maybe that’s most of your Wendover viewers. But I personally could not be any less goal oriented and driven. I’ve got so much time on my hands as a result shopping and cooking is never a problem. Do you have a service you could plug in your videos for people like me? Not curiosity stream either, I already have it. And it’s protected by my vpn that you also sold me on. I actually learned how to use all that stuff from skill share so shout out to them. You know, how that I’m thinking about it, you probably can’t even help me with this, I’m gonna talk to the half as interesting guy instead

15:28 Idk. I guess anything is possible, but based on just the examples you listed, I would lean toward a qualified answer. That answer would be, "Sure, they can still do it, but what would be the costs, both financial and the other costs (such as human rights, the well-being of the Chinese people, etc.)?"

Bear in mind, vast arrays of solar panels have to be kept clean on a schedule, otherwise their efficiency goes down due to sunblocking particles (natural dust, sand, bird stuff etc). And they have a life span of 20 years ish. So it's not a completely free solution.

Brilliant video! Please make more like this in the future. I absolutely love the “X country’s _____ problem” format

coal plants can be "scrubbed" with algae and moss in a large pool of water. Lots of studies were done and have shown to reduce co2 emissions a ton. Its a stopgap measure as coal wont last forever obviously, (but the algae can also be burned off once it gets too dense and needs to be cut off so its semi renewable.) But its a fairly low cost and incredibly efficient method of scrubbing co2. The stuff I read about, probably in popular mechanics or popular science, I cannot remember, talked about stuff that was swimming pool levels, so just imagine the efficiency of a pond. Like I said, its a stopgap measure, but its also a way for a country with tons of inhabited land to become "carbon neutral" also, finally, chinas 2nd biggest co2 producer is most likely concrete production, and thats just in the nature of producing concrete. You cant really make it "carbon neutral" so you HAVE to scrub that excess. I am not incredibly knowledgeable about the process, but from my understanding, just the chemical change of the limestone>lime produces co2 so that cant be removed from the equation. And ALL developing nations and developed nations need concrete by the assloads, China especially as they are building like mad and have many problematic rivers that are prone to flooding so concrete retaining walls are especially useful I bet. And hydroelectric power is incredibly concrete expensive, the Hoover dam required more concrete at that point than had ever been produced combined (not sure if that made sense, if you used all the concrete that had ever been produced from the beginning of time to the day of construction, it still wouldnt have been enough.) So some form of advanced form of scrubbing, such as algae farms will still have to take place, even if china switches entirely from coal to solar or whatever

秧苗助长，欲速不达 - China proverb To try to help the shoots grow by pulling them upward is Haste makes waste.

Nice vid as usual! Could you do the same for South Africas power problem?

My hometown is a small city in China's Gansu province, the least developed region of China, which has been growing like crazy since 2014, a city of 300,000 people with 100,000 cars, where summers are getting hotter and hotter

19:22 It is not a waste of time. Grocery shopping and making food is a good way of having the brain rest and work on stuff in the background, as well as letting your thoughts run wild.

According to data released by the National Energy Administration on the 18th, the total electricity consumption of China in 2023 was 9,224.1 billion kilowatt-hours, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%.

Why was there no discussion of intermittency of solar and wind electricity sources? They did mention the 60% utilization of UHV transmission lines, but claimed it was from "buy local" province administration.

Sam: I’ve met a ton of you. You’re… Me: Yes? Sam: …highly motivated… Me: *snorts coffee while playing Victoria 3 instead of working on my paper*

Rolling blackouts in California, USA - US electricity problem!

Your channel covers a lot of for me very interested topcs. Liked and subscribed!

I'm curious, who owns the remaining two ultra-high voltage power lines?

I actually thought this was Polymatter for several minutes lmao

hey Bendover...solar and wind can be intermittent...like your facts...

The video production is excellent, thank you. Regarding energy issues, here are a few points that were not mentioned in the video: 1. Nuclear power: Firstly, the proportion of nuclear power in China is currently low at 5%, but there is still significant room for growth. China currently has 55 nuclear power plants in operation, with 46 more planned. There are also 22 plants under construction, with a goal to increase nuclear power capacity by 6-8 units annually. The mass development of third-generation reactors cannot be rushed due to the large consumption of nuclear fuel. Research is also being conducted on six different fourth-generation nuclear power designs, with four of them already having experimental and demonstration reactors connected to the grid. China is in a leading position in this field. 2. Renewable energy generation: The main challenge lies in the weather-dependent and intermittent nature of renewable energy sources. Efforts are being made to address issues related to transmission networks and intermittent power supply through energy storage. Recently, commercial projects for hydrogen production from offshore wind power and solar power have been implemented. The construction of an ultra-high voltage transmission network, which is considered infrastructure, is well underway. China is also in a leading position in this field. Therefore, improvements are expected in the future. 3. Coal-fired power generation and mining: Although China is increasing the proportion of nuclear and renewable energy, coal-fired power generation still plays a significant role. China is a global leader in ultra-supercritical power generation, even reaching the "ultra-ultra-supercritical" level, with a 7% higher efficiency, 15% reduction in coal consumption, and 10% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared to subcritical units. In terms of coal mining, small mines have been closed, and large mines have achieved a high level of digitization and intelligence. The increase in coal-fired power generation is mainly due to the seasonal power shortages that occurred in the past two years, which raised concerns. It is necessary to appropriately increase coal-fired power generation in suitable locations. When facing seasonal or unexpected power shortages, the coal-fired power supply can be activated or increased dynamically to ensure power supply and, more importantly, the safety of the power system. Based on the determination and actual progress in increasing the proportion of nuclear and renewable energy generation, there is no need to add coal-fired power generation, except in areas where additional capacity is needed. In conclusion, with a comprehensive understanding, it is clear that there are existing problems that have been identified and are being addressed. Once thorium-based molten salt reactors are successfully commercialized, it will be possible to provide each medium-sized or larger city with small-scale, water-independent, and higher safety standard nuclear power units. As for nuclear fusion, although China has made some leading experimental achievements, it is still premature to draw conclusions. However, considering China's track record, significant progress can be expected. 视频制作很不错，感谢。 关于能源问题，补充几点此片没有提到的： 1. 核电：首先中国的核电占比5%很低，还有较大的空间，已有55座，计划中46座，在建的有22座，正在以每年6-8台核电机组的速度增加。 如果现在大规模发展第三代堆，每年的核燃料消耗量太大，所以不能急。 第四代核电有六种方案都在研究，其中四种已经分别建设实验堆、示范堆且发电并网。 这方面处于领先地位。 2. 新能源发电：主要问题是受天气影响大、不稳定，需要配合储能和远距离输送措施。 前些年有很多太阳能发电、风电浪费掉，目前主要是在解决输电网络、储能解决间歇性问题。最近海上风力发电制氢、太阳能发电制氢已陆续投入商用。特高压输电网络属于基础设施建设，主干已经基本成形，还在陆续建设。这方面处于领先地位。 所以，接下来会好很多。 3. 燃煤发电和采矿：虽然中国在增加核电、新能源发电的比例。 但中国在超临界发电方面全球领先，属于“超超临界”的水平，较亚临界机组效率高约7%，单位煤耗、二氧化碳排放可减少15%及10%。而煤矿方面，关停小煤矿，大型煤矿数字化、智能化水平非常高。 那么，为何煤电有所增加？ 前两年发生的季节性电力短缺引起了重视。 需要在一些合适的位置适当增加部分煤电，当发生季节性、突发性事件导致的电力短缺时，可以启动和增加煤电供应来动态调配，不仅仅保障供电，更重要的是保障电力系统安全。 可见，基于提高核电、新能源发电占比的决心和实际进展，在需要增补的地方之外，没必要新增煤电。 所以，全面了解之下得出的结论：存在问题，已经发现，正在解决。 尤其钍基熔盐堆一旦成功商业化运营，将来可以为每个中型以上城市配置一到两个小型的、不依赖水、更高安全标准的核电机组。 至于核聚变，虽然中国有部分领先的实验性成果，但还不敢下结论。但以中国一向的风格，估计偏离不大。

4:15, Europe switching to natural gas was probs their best and worst idea

Yesss! I live for new Wendover content! Love you

Australia has this issue as well, power outages on very hot days is a common issue

Notice they use split systems. By far the most energy efficient system on the market! Mitsubishi has models with seer rating as high as 29. Unheard of here in States!

I swear to God, I was sure that I was watching an Economics Explained video, until he said Wendover at the end.

That's a lot of HVDC ! (Most of the "stock" footage in this video is AC, not HVDC, however)

Several corrections: 1) Beijing doesn’t allow coal fired power generation or heating at all within its city border, so its coal price vs electricity price is irrelevant; 2) China can fully support its own coal needs without any imports unless policies sabotage coal productions like what happened in 2021.

We need a mirror article: "Why America's grid can't keep up".

I enjoy your channel and your deep dives on subjects. I wish you could do one on how much raw material it will take to hit all these green projects. I don't think we could mine enough fast enough or if proven finds are sufficient.

China gets a strategic RELIABILITY and RESILIENCY advantage to having provinces produce their own electricity: if one province goes down, the others are still up and can sell them power. Wendover can argue at 10:02 that is is more cost efficient to produce power in the lowest cost region, and more environmentally friendly to produce in the high WIND and SOLAR power regions, but it is less resilient to rely on power imports from far away... one or two power lines go down and the whole country could go down.

Went from Half as Interesting to Wendover Productions and genuinely did not notice this is WILD

Also coal employees a lot of people in the mining and plant continually, once solar / wind power generators are commissioned the number of employees is very small.

Another reason why renewable energy sources are not being adopted is because they are substantially less reliable than fuel based energies. Another consideration is the substantial land-use of solar power, plus the near impossibility of recycling the components of solar panels. Both wind and solar power also have a negative affect on certain types of wildlife that isn't often talked about.

I believe it is quite hypocritical when other countries and global organizations put pressure on China’s pollution when everyone relies on its industrial production. It is the same if you dump trash on your neighbor’s yard and then proceed to complain on how filthy it is. We still have a long way to go and I think carbon credits will be relevant (when done correctly)

China though has been focusing on Nuclear Power. Building alot of new plants in the west for keeping them remote. They even have a whole university just for nuclear engineers in the west. So i see China going nuclear mostly within 2 decades

Canada can't keep up either when big manufacturers in the south tell manufacturers in the north to turn off blast furnaces and other power hungry machines on hot days because toronto needs more power for air conditioning etc isn't moving forward.

Honestly pretty straight forward solutions to the air conditioning problem.

Why wasn't there a mention of nuclear power in the video?