Although previous infrastructure projects in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia have failed, China is now investing heavily in green energy in these regions and finding eager targets.
Companies are making progress in power generation and manufacturing solar energy equipment with support from a variety of host countries including Egypt, Mauritius, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. In dollar terms, Chinese-backed projects grew at an unusually fast rate last year.
Christoph Nedpil Wang, director of the Australia-based Griffith Asia Institute, said China’s efforts in “alternative” power in Africa reached a historic high of about US$2.7 billion in 2023.
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China’s Belt and Road, 10 years
China’s Belt and Road, 10 years
According to the institute’s data, alternative energy projects in the Middle East totaled US$9.48 billion from 2018 to 2023. This figure dwarfs the US$2.23 billion spent over the past decade. Central Asia set its own record last year, receiving US$1.3 billion in investments from China.
Analysts say Chinese investors can make money in green energy without worrying host countries about the cost, scale and pollution posed by megaprojects from the early stages of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. That’s what it means.
This is aimed at improving China’s image and demonstrating its status as a global player.
“Chinese companies involved in renewable energy usually seek solid financial returns,” Wang said.
Jayant Menon, a senior researcher at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, said Chinese leaders aim to overturn the Belt and Road’s old reputation.
“This is aimed at improving China’s image and demonstrating its status as a global player, as well as addressing criticism of how irresponsible China has been in the past in its dealings with developing countries,” Menon said. he said.
China’s energy efforts last year were already the “greenest in absolute and relative terms” under the Belt and Road, the Fudan University Green Finance Development Center said in a February research paper. .
Extreme weather conditions are spurring countries in Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, especially poorer ones, to overhaul their power generation efforts to cut carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030, in line with United Nations targets. We are feeling the heat from climate change.
Clean energy commitments are increasing, and China is one of the biggest partners in achieving those goals.
However, the Fairbank China Research Center found in a 2022 study that China is “leveraging its competitive advantage in policy coherence” to keep capital costs low and expand global markets with solar and wind exports. He said he has taken the lead.
Chinese news website Huanqiu.com reported that high heat and yellow dust during Qatar’s hot season had increased reflectivity at the observatory’s site, 80 kilometers (49.7 miles) from the capital Doha. Harvesting solar energy reflected from the ground increases power generation by 10 to 15 percent.
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Qatar opens first solar power plant built with Chinese equipment and technology
Qatar opens first solar power plant built with Chinese equipment and technology
Qatar’s Consul General in Hong Kong, Ali Saad Al-Hajri, said in October that the solar power plant would further increase cooperation with China on renewable energy.
“These commitments to clean energy are increasing, and China is one of our greatest partners in achieving those goals,” he said.
Consul General to Hong Kong Baher Sheweiki said solar energy accounts for a portion of China’s $6 billion investment in Egypt. The two countries also look forward to researching renewable hydrogen together, he added.
China’s Belt and Road increases focus on green energy after announcing suspension of new coal-fired power plants: report
China’s Belt and Road increases focus on green energy after announcing suspension of new coal-fired power plants: report
Beijing’s state-run Xinhua news agency said on January 25 that China contributed more than half of the 510 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity the world installed last year.
Xinhua News Agency quoted a National Energy Administration official as saying that China has “developed into an indispensable force in promoting the development of clean energy in the world.” The report points to increased wind, solar and hydropower capacity.
Profits are primarily economic…such investments are finite
In Uzbekistan, solar panels from China will help power a 1GW project built to harness the Central Asian country’s abundant sunlight to provide 2.4 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually, Xinhua said. Reported in October. The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by up to 2.4 million tonnes.
And neighboring Kazakhstan sees green technology as a “promising area of cooperation” with China, the country’s top diplomat in Hong Kong said.
Zha Daojiong, a professor of international studies at Peking University, said that for China, “the benefits are mainly economic.” “Such investments have limits. The electricity produced remains in the destination market.”