China gives green light to eleven new reactors as part of nuclear offensive

BEIJING

China has approved the construction of 11 nuclear reactors at five sites, state media reported, as the country continues its efforts to combat rising emissions from fossil fuels.

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Premier Li Qiang chaired an executive meeting of the State Council on August 19 that gave the green light to the projects, state news agency Xinhua reported.

China National Nuclear Power has received approval for three reactors, the company said in a statement on WeChat, while State Power Investment Corp said it had received approval for two plants.

CGN Power Co, the listed subsidiary of state-owned China General Nuclear Power Corp, announced in an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it had received permits for six reactors at three sites.

According to the World Nuclear Association, there are currently 56 reactors in operation in China, accounting for about five percent of total electricity generation.

The new reactors will be distributed across the provinces of Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang and Guangxi, reported the state news portal China Energy News.

State-controlled Chinese business news portal Jiemian reported that the total investment for all 11 reactors is expected to exceed 220 billion yuan ($30.8 billion) and the construction period will be about five years.

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China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which drive climate change.

A recent surge in coal-fired power plant approvals has heightened concerns that China may be moving away from its goal of peaking emissions between 2026 and 2030 and becoming carbon neutral by 2060.

Meanwhile, Eurostat announced on August 19 that solar energy will overtake coal as the leading energy source in the European Union by 2022.

“In 2022, hard coal was overtaken by solar energy for the first time in electricity generation in the EU,” said a statement from the statistics agency. Solar energy produced 210,249 gigawatt hours (GWh) in the EU this year, while hard coal only produced 205,693 GWh.

Lignite, a type of coal with a lower energy content, is used to generate electricity in nine member states and was the source of 241,572 GWh of electricity, the statement said.

During the same period, the Union’s import dependence on hard coal reached its highest level at 74.4 percent (after around 60 percent in 2021), probably due to the build-up of hard coal stocks in the countries.

In 2022 – the year the Ukraine war began – Russia remained the EU’s largest supplier of hard coal with a share of 24 percent (compared to 45 percent in 2021), followed by the United States with 18 percent and Australia with 17 percent.