Growth of solar despite COVID-19 points to Southeast Asia s green potential aseantoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aseantoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Reuters
As China s ban on coal imports from Australia drags on, questions are rising about whether Beijing s political punishment of a major trading partner is worth the cost.
China has struggled with power shortages since the start of the winter heating season due to unusually cold weather, which strained coal supplies.
The crunch has been complicated by growing demand from economic recovery and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed domestic coal production and transport to power plants.
But the problems have not prevented China s government from pursuing a political agenda against Australia despite a free trade agreement between the two countries since 2015.
Winter Coal Shortages Reveal Chinese Energy Vulnerabilities jamestown.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jamestown.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
AP
An outbreak of electricity shortages has taken China s government by surprise, exposing cracks in the country s energy policies and economic recovery plans.
The first signs of trouble in the energy sector emerged in November as electricity consumption jumped 9.4 percent, spurred by rising industrial production and the start of the winter heating season, as power generation rose only 6.8 percent.
In early December, power demands in southern China s Hunan province led State Grid officials to warn that shortfalls would last until spring, according to state media.
Since then, unusually cold weather has combined with low coal supplies and recovery strains to produce a range of energy shortages in southeastern Jiangxi and eastern Zhejiang provinces as well as Inner Mongolia.