Renewable energy development in China: Policies, Technologies, Efficiency, Challenges

On May 13, ARC is hosting the guest lecture Renewable energy development in China: Policies, Technologies, Efficiency, Challenges with Associate Professor Darrin Magee, Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

The talk will examine the opportunities and challenges of China’s current energy policy plans to raise the relative share of renewables in the energy mix in order to meet the country’s projected energy needs while ‘greening’ the energy sector. China’s gains in wind and solar capacity and output have been impressive and growth in those areas will likely continue. Meanwhile, central policies call for more than doubling the country’s existing large-scale hydropower capacity (already the world’s greatest) by 2030, as well as increasing nuclear capacity eight- to ten-fold. However, these two technologies present far greater challenges in terms of socioeconomic, biophysical, and geopolitical impacts than wind and solar. In addition to examining renewable energy policies and technologies, the talk will examine the possible role of radically improved end-use energy efficiency in buildings as well as in the energy, transportation and industrial sectors as a means of meeting energy needs from the demand-side.

Darrin Magee is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Asian Environmental Studies Initiative at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. A specialist on environmental issues in China, he has lived and worked in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. His research and teaching address water, energy and waste issues, including large-scale hydropower and other water infrastructure. He is also a Fellow for Rocky Mountain Institute’s “Reinventing Fire: China” Project.

Time and place:

May 13, 14:30-16:00

Copenhagen Business School
Kilen, Kilevej 14
2000 Frederiksberg
Room K150

Please sign up at arc.int@cbs.dk.