ABSTRACT
China’s development to become the world’s second-largest economy has been fueled by the largest coal-fired electricity consumption globally. Besides widely discussed emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, coal-fired power plants also use significant volumes of water every year, primarily for cooling. However, China is not abundant in water, and the spatial distribution of its water resources is highly unbalanced. More than 650 million people now live in water-stressed areas in China, and the number is on the rise. Moreover, there is a mismatch between where in China water is relatively abundant and where its coal-fired power plants are concentrated. A large proportion of China’s coal power generation capacity is located in water-scarce regions. Limited water availability is a growing constraint on the development of the electricity sector, implying the adoption of more costly cooling technologies. While China begins to tackle its emerging environmental crises and promote an ambitious energy transition, water use in its electricity sector is being reshaped by the sector’s rapid technological evolutions but remains underappreciated. This chapter sets the context for this book by introducing the status of China’s water and energy sectors as well as the emergent challenges it faces regarding water management in its power sector.
