Abstract:
This report outlines power sector reforms developing in China and the increasingly complex landscape of climate and energy policies intended to support carbon neutrality. It then presents two different but complementary energy-economy models of the energy transition and power sector in China: the REPO model developed by 3E at Tsinghua University and the E3ME-FTT:Power model developed by the University of Exeter and Cambridge Econometrics.
These models are used to illuminate possible futures for the Chinese power sector. In combination, they show that, whichever modelling approach we take, the impending dominance of solar and wind power in China is clear. However, the implications of this transition for costs and wider macroeconomic impacts are more subtle.
This report is jointly published by Tsinghua University’s Institute of Energy, Environment, and Economy (3E) and other partners in the Economics of Energy Innovation and System Transition (EEIST) project.
Citation:
Miller-Wang, A., Zhang, H., Barbrook-Johnson, P., Zhang, Y., Vercoulen, P., Nijesse, F., Weng, Y., Sharpe, S., Mercure, J., Grubb, M., Zhang, X., (2024), 'Power sector futures in China: A multi-model approach to understanding China’s carbon-neutral pathways and power sector reform', EEIST, https://eeist.co.uk/power-sector-futures-in-china-a-multi-model-approach-to-understanding-chinas-carbon-neutral-pathways-and-power-sector-reform/.