Chinese solar park (archive image)
Photo: © Carlos Barria / Reuters/ REUTERS
Given its immense scope, the message was pretty much lost.
On the Saturday before last, China officially announced the construction plans for solar and wind parks with an output of around 450 gigawatts.
It is the largest such project in history, He Lifeng, director of the National Development Commission, told Reuters on the sidelines of the National People's Congress.
He hardly found any attention in other media, probably because of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.
The announcement is no less than a sensation.
450 gigawatts – that corresponds to the output of 450 smaller nuclear power plants.
It is about twice as much as the combined capacity of all German green electricity plants.
And more than four times as much power as the failed Desertec project was supposed to provide for Europe.
As with the EU plans in the Sahara, China's gigaparks are also to be built in desert regions, especially in the Gobi.
Economic interests in particular are likely to be behind the eco-offensive.
Renewable energies are considered one of the largest global future markets - and as a geopolitical lever of power.
Those who consistently expand it can hope for more security of supply, falling energy costs and additional sources of income through patents and technology exports.
The Chinese government has been setting the course for global market leadership for more than ten years.
Experts have known about China's desert power plans for some time.
As early as December, the National Energy Administration (NEA) called on companies to apply for the construction of solar and wind parks, says Frank Haugwitz, head of the German-Chinese consulting agency AECEA, SPIEGEL.
As early as mid-January, just before the Chinese New Year, the corresponding expressions of interest would have amounted to just over 460 gigawatts.
China's President Xi Jinping announced the first 100 gigawatts last October at the UN Diversity Conference in the southern Chinese city of Kunming.
The NEA has already approved most of these projects.
“About half could be connected to the grid by the end of 2022.” The remaining 350 gigawatts should follow by 2030 at the latest.
There are also other green electricity projects throughout the country.
Overall, the Chinese government wants to build plants with a capacity of 1,200 gigawatts by 2030.
Megaparks for China's »Supergrid«
It is not only the ambitious speed that makes the green electricity ambitions in the Far East so remarkable.
The gigaparks in the desert are also to be connected to the urban centers in the east of the country, and in some cases to less developed regions in the west of China, via so-called ultra-high-voltage (UHV) lines.
Current flows in UHV lines at voltages up to 800,000 volts through DC cables or up to 1.1 million volts through AC systems.
Electricity can thus be transported over very long distances with comparatively low losses.
In the medium term, the People's Republic wants to build a North Asian "super grid" using UHV lines, which will connect Russia, Mongolia, South Korea, North Korea and Japan with China and enable the exchange of electricity over thousands of kilometers.
Even the idea of a kind of world power grid was once in the air.
However, one wonders how realistic such projects are - given the political tensions between many of these countries.
Another challenge, according to energy experts, is the efficiency of the solar panels.
Especially in desert areas, the temperature differences between day and night are extreme.
Added to this is the high concentration of dust in the air.
Both could quickly reduce electricity production and necessitate expensive maintenance work.
Climate killer China
The main problem, however, remains that China, despite the green electricity boom, will continue to burn coal on a massive scale for the time being.
Almost 60 percent of all electricity generated in the People's Republic still comes from coal-fired power plants.
China's reactors have a total capacity of 1,200 gigawatts.
In 2020 alone, the country commissioned new coal-fired power plants with a capacity of 38.4 gigawatts - almost as much as all existing German reactors put together.
And because of the global energy crisis, China is running almost all coal-fired power plants at full speed.
Reports of power shortages in parts of China have repeatedly surfaced over the past summer and fall.
The background to this was an unusually large energy requirement in industry, which had to process orders from all over the world due to catch-up effects after the corona crisis, and the high prices on the gas market, which caused Chinese imports of liquid gas to decline.
The burden on the climate is massive.
In 2020, China emitted more than 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide - twice as much as the US.
The People's Republic is by far the largest CO2 emitter in the world.
And carbon dioxide emissions could continue to rise until 2030.
Only then should it reach its zenith according to the government in Beijing.
And so the People's Republic of China is climate saver and climate killer at the same time.
On the one hand, with its giga-projects, it is fueling the mass production of green electricity systems and driving down the costs of the energy transition worldwide.
On the other hand, it is accelerating the global warming more and more every year.
The government in Beijing does not see a contradiction in this.
Coal power remains a "vital part" of his energy strategy for now, Xi said at the National People's Congress.
Even China cannot slam on the brakes on fossil fuels.