Abstract

China’s traditional development strategy for the power sector has emphasized supply sufficiency and affordability of electricity. This strategy has played an important role in insuring the high growth of China’s economy in the last thirty years. Its coal-fired power generating capacity is now the biggest in the world and accounts for 40% of global coal-fired capacity. China’s strategy for power sector development now faces two major challenges: the need for industrial upgrading and climate change. The prior power sector development strategy cannot easily be adapted to these challenges in the long term, and China now needs to reconsider its strategy in this key sector.

XUAN Xiaowei is Associate Researcher in China’s Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council. He has been involved in studies of the National 10th and 11th Five-Year Plans and now participates in study of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), focusing on national strategies to move China to a low-carbon economy. In 2008, he was a postdoc in the Energy Technology Innovation Policy group at the Harvard Kennedy School and is now at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, researching advanced coal technology policy in China. He holds a PhD in Economics in Peking University and his dissertation modeled the impacts of sulfur taxes on the Chinese economy.