空气污染致命，中国向清洁能源敞开怀抱

    去年，中国对清洁能源的投资达到惊人的800亿美元，其中包括风电项目和太阳能电站，是美国去年该项支出的两倍多。

    中国之所以愿意大掏腰包，主要原因之一是中国的空气污染十分严重，而这很大程度上是由于高污染的燃煤电厂导致的。研究团队Berkeley Earth上周五发布的报告显示，空气污染平均每天在中国夺走4000人的生命，中国每年因此死亡的人数高达160万。

    说到空气污染，看看笼罩在北京等城市上空的雾霾就知道了。这些污染大多来自距城市200英里远的工业园区的燃煤电厂。这一发现十分有趣。其原因在于，为解决城市空气污染，中国政府采取了许多着眼于本地的措施，比如限制市区内燃油汽车的数量，关闭城市附近的燃煤电厂等等。

    不过，如果城市污染的绝大部分都来自遥远的燃煤电厂，政府就需要对中国的能源基础设施进行更大规模、更深层次的调整。总体来说，中国在过去两年中已经减少了对燃煤电厂的依赖，但煤炭预计仍然是未来电力的主要来源。

    在接下来的几十年，中国增加的能源基础设施会超过全球其他任何国家——这既包括清洁能源，还包括天然气、核能和燃煤。根据研究公司Bloomberg New Energy Finance在今年早些时候发布的报告，未来25年，中国预计将投资3.3万亿美元兴建新的发电设施。

    到目前为止，中国已成为全球最大的风力和太阳能发电设备市场。GTM Research的最近一篇报告指出，中国预计将在2015年安装140亿瓦特的太阳能发电板，大约占全球总产能（550亿瓦特）的四分之一。研究公司Navigant称，中国在去年年底已经有了230亿瓦特的风电场，而美国只有48.5亿瓦特。10亿瓦特大约等同于一个大型燃煤电厂或燃气厂的规模。

    与之类似，尽管许多国家正在关闭或停止建设核电站，但中国正在推行在未来几年兴建多家核电站的计划。国际能源署表示，中国正在新建50座核电站。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    审校：任文科

    China spent a jaw-dropping $80 billion last year on clean energy, including wind projects and solar farms. That’s more than double what the U.S. spent last year.

    One of the major reasons behind this spending spree is the country’s serious air pollution problem, which is largely caused by dirty coal power plants. According to a report released on Friday from research group Berkeley Earth, air pollution is contributing to an average of 4,000 deaths a day, or 1.6 million a year, in China.

    Much of the air pollution — visible in the smog that covers cities like Beijing — is coming from coal power plants that lie in industrial zones as far as 200 miles away from cities. The findings are interesting because the Chinese government has made a variety of efforts to clean up air pollution in cities by taking local measures, like curbing gas-powered cars within cities and closing coal plants near cities.

    But if city pollution is coming mostly from the country’s coal plants far away, the government will be required to make bigger, and deeper changes to the country’s energy infrastructure. China has been slowing its use of coal plants over the past two years in general, but is still expected to use coal for substantial electricity use in the future.

    China will be adding more energy infrastructure — both in the form of clean power and through gas, nuclear and coal — than any other country over the next several decades. Over the next 25 years China is expected to attract $3.3 trillion worth of investments for new power generation, according to a report earlier this year from research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

    China is by far the world’s largest wind and solar market. It expects to install 14 gigawatts of solar panels in 2015, which represent about a quarter out of the 55 gigawatt worldwide output, according to a recent report from GTM Research. According to research firm Navigant, China had 23 gigawatts worth of wind farms by the end of last year, while the U.S. had 4.85 gigawatts. A gigawatt is about the size of a large coal or gas plant.

    Likewise, while many countries around the world are closing or stalling nuclear plants, China is moving ahead with plans to install many nuclear plants over the next several years. The country is building 50 new nuclear plants, according to the International Energy Association.