IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v53y2016icp1076-1085.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How will diffusion of PV solar contribute to China׳s emissions-peaking and climate responses?

Author

Listed:
  • Duan, Hong-Bo
  • Zhang, Gu-Peng
  • Zhu, Lei
  • Fan, Ying
  • Wang, Shou-Yang

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is widely regarded as a significant and sustainable renewable energy option to fight against climate change.Accordingly, it is important to explore the potential of greenhouse gases (GHGs) mitigation and temperature benefits by substituting PV-generated power for coal-fired electricity. This necessity becomes particularly clear given that China hascommitted itself to a carbon emissions peak around 2030. Based on an integrated energy-economy-environmental model and a simple climate response model, we reach the following conclusions: (1) By restraining the cumulative GHGs emissions space within 255 GtCO2eqtill 2050, PV solar promises to dominate GHGs mitigation, with the highest contribution reaching 64.67%. (2) Under the moderate emissions-control case, China will achieve its emissions peak target, with solar energy substitution relieving the nation׳s dependence on coal. (3) The highest radiative forcing and temperature benefits yieldedthrough replacing coal-generated power with solar power is around 20% and 11.05%, respectively. (4) Finally, it is not too costly to gain such benefits: at most, the accumulated economic cost would be 102.14 trillion Yuanuntil 2050, accounting for less than 3% of the accumulated GDP.

Suggested Citation

  • Duan, Hong-Bo & Zhang, Gu-Peng & Zhu, Lei & Fan, Ying & Wang, Shou-Yang, 2016. "How will diffusion of PV solar contribute to China׳s emissions-peaking and climate responses?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1076-1085.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:53:y:2016:i:c:p:1076-1085
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.09.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032115009910
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2015.09.021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kawase, Reina & Matsuoka, Yuzuru, 2013. "Reduction targets under three burden-sharing schemes for 50% global GHG reduction toward 2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1126-1138.
    2. Reyer Gerlagh & Bob van der Zwaan, 2006. "Options and Instruments for a Deep Cut in CO2 Emissions: Carbon Dioxide Capture or Renewables, Taxes or Subsidies?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 25-48.
    3. Burtt, D. & Dargusch, P., 2015. "The cost-effectiveness of household photovoltaic systems in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia: Linking subsidies with emission reductions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 439-448.
    4. Zhou, Kaile & Yang, Shanlin & Shen, Chao & Ding, Shuai & Sun, Chaoping, 2015. "Energy conservation and emission reduction of China’s electric power industry," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 10-19.
    5. Krauter, S & Rüther, R, 2004. "Considerations for the calculation of greenhouse gas reduction by photovoltaic solar energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 345-355.
    6. Nugent, Daniel & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2014. "Assessing the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from solar PV and wind energy: A critical meta-survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 229-244.
    7. Duan, Hong-Bo & Fan, Ying & Zhu, Lei, 2013. "What’s the most cost-effective policy of CO2 targeted reduction: An application of aggregated economic technological model with CCS?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 866-875.
    8. H. Damon Matthews & Nathan P. Gillett & Peter A. Stott & Kirsten Zickfeld, 2009. "The proportionality of global warming to cumulative carbon emissions," Nature, Nature, vol. 459(7248), pages 829-832, June.
    9. Ottmar Edenhofer , Brigitte Knopf, Terry Barker, Lavinia Baumstark, Elie Bellevrat, Bertrand Chateau, Patrick Criqui, Morna Isaac, Alban Kitous, Socrates Kypreos, Marian Leimbach, Kai Lessmann, Bertra, 2010. "The Economics of Low Stabilization: Model Comparison of Mitigation Strategies and Costs," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Special I).
    10. Lisa Zaval & Elizabeth A. Keenan & Eric J. Johnson & Elke U. Weber, 2014. "How warm days increase belief in global warming," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(2), pages 143-147, February.
    11. Zhai, Pei & Larsen, Peter & Millstein, Dev & Menon, Surabi & Masanet, Eric, 2012. "The potential for avoided emissions from photovoltaic electricity in the United States," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 443-450.
    12. Michael R. Raupach & Steven J. Davis & Glen P. Peters & Robbie M. Andrew & Josep G. Canadell & Philippe Ciais & Pierre Friedlingstein & Frank Jotzo & Detlef P. van Vuuren & Corinne Le Quéré, 2014. "Sharing a quota on cumulative carbon emissions," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(10), pages 873-879, October.
    13. R. J. Barthelmie & S. C. Pryor, 2014. "Potential contribution of wind energy to climate change mitigation," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(8), pages 684-688, August.
    14. Amponsah, Nana Yaw & Troldborg, Mads & Kington, Bethany & Aalders, Inge & Hough, Rupert Lloyd, 2014. "Greenhouse gas emissions from renewable energy sources: A review of lifecycle considerations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 461-475.
    15. Detlef Vuuren & Jason Lowe & Elke Stehfest & Laila Gohar & Andries Hof & Chris Hope & Rachel Warren & Malte Meinshausen & Gian-Kasper Plattner, 2011. "How well do integrated assessment models simulate climate change?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 255-285, January.
    16. Weisser, Daniel, 2007. "A guide to life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electric supply technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1543-1559.
    17. Joeri Rogelj & Julia Nabel & Claudine Chen & William Hare & Kathleen Markmann & Malte Meinshausen & Michiel Schaeffer & Kirsten Macey & Niklas Höhne, 2010. "Copenhagen Accord pledges are paltry," Nature, Nature, vol. 464(7292), pages 1126-1128, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Urban, Frauke, 2018. "China's rise: Challenging the North-South technology transfer paradigm for climate change mitigation and low carbon energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 320-330.
    2. Jiang, Jingjing & Ye, Bin & Liu, Junguo, 2019. "Peak of CO2 emissions in various sectors and provinces of China: Recent progress and avenues for further research," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 813-833.
    3. Lin He & Chang-Ling Li & Qing-Yun Nie & Yan Men & Hai Shao & Jiang Zhu, 2017. "Core Abilities Evaluation Index System Exploration and Empirical Study on Distributed PV-Generation Projects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Pan, Yingjie & Yao, Xing & Wang, Xin & Zhu, Lei, 2019. "Policy uncertainties: What investment choice for solar panel producers?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 454-467.
    5. Zhong, Teng & Zhang, Zhixin & Chen, Min & Zhang, Kai & Zhou, Zixuan & Zhu, Rui & Wang, Yijie & Lü, Guonian & Yan, Jinyue, 2021. "A city-scale estimation of rooftop solar photovoltaic potential based on deep learning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    6. Yang, Ying & Campana, Pietro Elia & Yan, Jinyue, 2020. "Potential of unsubsidized distributed solar PV to replace coal-fired power plants, and profits classification in Chinese cities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    7. Prehoda, Emily W. & Pearce, Joshua M., 2017. "Potential lives saved by replacing coal with solar photovoltaic electricity production in the U.S," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 710-715.
    8. Jiang, Jingjing & Ye, Bin & Liu, Junguo, 2019. "Research on the peak of CO2 emissions in the developing world: Current progress and future prospect," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 186-203.
    9. Mu, Yaqian & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia, 2018. "The economic impact of China's INDC: Distinguishing the roles of the renewable energy quota and the carbon market," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2955-2966.
    10. Duan, Hongbo & Mo, Jianlei & Fan, Ying & Wang, Shouyang, 2018. "Achieving China's energy and climate policy targets in 2030 under multiple uncertainties," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 45-60.
    11. Yu, Zhiqiang & Ma, Wenhui & Xie, Keqiang & Lv, Guoqiang & Chen, Zhengjie & Wu, Jijun & Yu, Jie, 2017. "Life cycle assessment of grid-connected power generation from metallurgical route multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic system in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P1), pages 68-81.
    12. Wang, Yu & He, Jijiang & Chen, Wenying, 2021. "Distributed solar photovoltaic development potential and a roadmap at the city level in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    13. Urban, Frauke & Geall, Sam & Wang, Yu, 2016. "Solar PV and solar water heaters in China: Different pathways to low carbon energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 531-542.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emblemsvåg, Jan, 2022. "Wind energy is not sustainable when balanced by fossil energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    2. Zheng, Jiali & Duan, Hongbo & Zhou, Sheng & Wang, Shouyang & Gao, Ji & Jiang, Kejun & Gao, Shuo, 2021. "Limiting global warming to below 1.5 °C from 2 °C: An energy-system-based multi-model analysis for China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Susana Silva & Isabel Soares & Carlos Pinho, 2018. "Renewable energy subsidies versus carbon capture and sequestration support," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 1213-1227, June.
    4. Dietz, Simon & Gollier, Christian & Kessler, Louise, 2018. "The climate beta," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 258-274.
    5. Hongbo Duan & Gupeng Zhang & Shouyang Wang & Ying Fan, 2018. "Balancing China’s climate damage risk against emission control costs," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 387-403, March.
    6. Kumar, Indraneel & Tyner, Wallace E. & Sinha, Kumares C., 2016. "Input–output life cycle environmental assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from utility scale wind energy in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 294-301.
    7. Jiang, Suqin & Chen, Zun & Shan, Li & Chen, Xinyu & Wang, Haikun, 2017. "Committed CO2 emissions of China's coal-fired power generators from 1993 to 2013," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 295-302.
    8. Vicki Duscha & Katja Schumacher & Joachim Schleich & Pierre Buisson, 2014. "Costs of meeting international climate targets without nuclear power," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 327-352, May.
    9. M. A. Parvez Mahmud & Nazmul Huda & Shahjadi Hisan Farjana & Candace Lang, 2018. "Environmental Impacts of Solar-Photovoltaic and Solar-Thermal Systems with Life-Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-21, September.
    10. Johansson, Daniel J. A. & Lucas, Paul L. & Weitzel, Matthias & Ahlgren, Erik O. & Bazaz, A. B. & Chen, Wenying & den Elzen, Michel G. J. & Ghosh, Joydeep & Grahn, Maria & Liang, Qiao-Mei & Peterson, S, 2012. "Multi-model analyses of the economic and energy implications for China and India in a post-Kyoto climate regime," Kiel Working Papers 1808, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    11. Turconi, Roberto & Boldrin, Alessio & Astrup, Thomas, 2013. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) of electricity generation technologies: Overview, comparability and limitations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 555-565.
    12. Simon Dietz & Frederick van der Ploeg & Armon Rezai & Frank Venmans, 2021. "Are Economists Getting Climate Dynamics Right and Does It Matter?," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(5), pages 895-921.
    13. Mahmud, M.A. Parvez & Huda, Nazmul & Farjana, Shahjadi Hisan & Lang, Candace, 2020. "Life-cycle impact assessment of renewable electricity generation systems in the United States," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1028-1045.
    14. Hamilton, Nicholas E. & Howard, Bahareh Sara & Diesendorf, Mark & Wiedmann, Thomas, 2017. "Computing life-cycle emissions from transitioning the electricity sector using a discrete numerical approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 314-324.
    15. Coilín ÓhAiseadha & Gerré Quinn & Ronan Connolly & Michael Connolly & Willie Soon, 2020. "Energy and Climate Policy—An Evaluation of Global Climate Change Expenditure 2011–2018," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-49, September.
    16. Mendoza Beltran, Angelica & den Elzen, Michel G.J. & Hof, Andries F. & van Vuuren, Detlef P. & van Vliet, Jasper, 2011. "Exploring the bargaining space within international climate negotiations based on political, economic and environmental considerations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7361-7371.
    17. Scarlat, Nicolae & Prussi, Matteo & Padella, Monica, 2022. "Quantification of the carbon intensity of electricity produced and used in Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    18. Ackerman, Frank & Stanton, Elizabeth A., 2012. "Climate risks and carbon prices: Revising the social cost of carbon," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-25.
    19. Richard Heede, 2014. "Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers, 1854–2010," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 229-241, January.
    20. Duan, Hong-Bo & Zhu, Lei & Fan, Ying, 2014. "Optimal carbon taxes in carbon-constrained China: A logistic-induced energy economic hybrid model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 345-356.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:53:y:2016:i:c:p:1076-1085. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.