Record power shortage hits China

Twilight · Expert Joined: Mar 02, 2007 Posts: 2971 Location: UK

Who could have imagined it was possible to scale one thing faster than another? Rolling Eyes

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"The American people are watching the numbers climb higher and higher at the pump and they're waiting to see what the Congress will do." - George W Bush

FreakOil

Power prices are going to have to go up, which means production costs go up and widget prices go up. People in China and abroad are going to start to realize that their money doesn't go as far as it used to.

ekaggata · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 12, 2006 Posts: 126

I'm in Nanjing right now, and as far as I can see this is an unprecedented situation. Here a light snowfall happens two or three times a decade, so I'm told, but the weather I've seen over the last two weeks has been the same as I saw in the Russian Urals a few years ago. The snowfall is now heavy and relentless. All my friends are having problems with plumbing/ice, a couple of people I know are stuck at the airport facing huge delays, another friend has lost his heating.
And we're the lucky ones. At least we still have power! China has banned exports of coal because the situation is so dire with the New Year holiday coming up:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/26/content_7499418.htm

I'm just praying my flight for Shenzhen will leave OK on Wednesday..

ekaggata · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 12, 2006 Posts: 126

lowem

Starvid

The problem right now seems to be a continent wide bout of cold weather, but the fundamental problem is that energy is subsidised in China. Count on that not changing, because the Chinese government is afraid of inflation.
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Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

lowem

lawnchair · Intermediate Crude Joined: Oct 20, 2004 Posts: 714

500,000 people cheek-to-jowl around the Guangzhou train station? Cold and flu season?
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At 1% annual growth, human bodies will incorporate every gram in the observable universe in approximately 10,170 years.

ekaggata · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 12, 2006 Posts: 126

Tidbit no. 4357 :
Today in the Shenzhen Daily I read that a military plane was sent yesterday into a city in Hubei province to deliver .. wait for it .. 500,000 candles.
Shock

I personally think the whole of 2008 is going to be a fairly ugly wake up call for China.

paimei01

They are supposed to be communists (and a totalitarian regime), now they are just greedy capitalists destroying their country (and a totalitarian regime)

Soon they will regret the years when their streets were full of bicycle riding people.
And the people of Cuba will soon realize they live a good life compared to others, look at Haiti.
Cuba has urban gardens, gardening clubs and no foreign companies using the land for ethanol. Haiti has "capitalism" and dirt - good to eat
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"Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat. It's not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!"

FreakOil