China Down To Eight Days' Coal Supply; Blocks Exports As Provincial Grids Restrict Use - AFP

BEIJING (AFP) — China on Wednesday issued an "urgent" call for the coal industry, electricity providers and government agencies to ensure adequate coal supplies as a nationwide power crisis loomed. The government said the order was spurred by a recent and steady decline in the nation's coal stockpile to perilously low levels just as a spell of harsh winter weather has driven up China's already voracious demand.

"Some regions have seen their coal stockpiles drop sharply, causing both coal and electricity supplies to fall to emergency levels," said the order issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, which has control over energy issues. The "urgent notice" posted on the commission's website called on coal suppliers and electricity providers to maintain steady output, businesses and government agencies to push electricity conservation and all parties to ensure coal is brought to market quickly.

The plea comes after the country's largest electricity supplier, State Grid Corp., asked the government to help ensure coal supplies, the China Business News reported. The looming supply shortage had already caused 13 provincial power grids in central and southern China to impose restrictions on electricity use, it added.

The report said the booming nation's stockpile of coal, which provides about 70 percent of China's power needs, had dwindled to a mere week's supply in recent days. According to State Grid Corp., the stockpile stood at 17.7 million tonnes on January 20, down more than 40 percent from a year earlier, or about an eight-day supply, the paper said.

EDIT

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hA2fC-JIViLWU9M7Yl_rRdBGVqqA

Can you imagine how much coal they must be burning

How much pollution those cheap made goods from Walmart are responsible for

...burn US dollars instead.

:eyes:

Of course it's "passive" solar and wind, not electricity.

without the sun, we'd all be about 3 degrees Kelvin.

so in other words we should file this under

FULL OF SHIT

I immediately thought of Japan and its entry into WWII due to energy supply limitations.

Organisms, individuals, businesses, nations ultimately are driven by a will to survive.

When push comes to shove, one wonders what China--or any of us, for that matter--will do to ensure their economic survival. Potentially scary stuff.

Pearl Harbor was about oil, and so was, on some level, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

1.5 billion people, cold, hungry, and with a surplus of men, surrounded by small, oil rich regions... Hmmmm

Long-hauling trucking, if that's what this is, is at least 3-4 times less energy efficient than transport by rail or barge.

China's coal-fired power plants are not generally modern, efficient plants with lots of anti-pollution equipment. Even their new ones are made from the older plans offered by the Chinese construction firms, not from the West. They may never get up to speed on this due to the relationships among Chinese industries--unless they decide to order a few modern ones and then steal the technology.

This means more sulfur dioxide, particulates, silver (that sterilizes the ocean) and radioactive elements spewed into the atmosphere per kilowatt hour. Add that to the fact that they're not getting the maximum electric power from the coal they're using and you have a very, very inefficient system.

I believe that they also use coal to heat, and maybe to cook.

AND--if that's not enough, the article says that the water behind the hydro dams is low, so that is contributing to the shortage.

If I were an investor in a plant that used electricity, I'd think twice about investing in China right now.