No TV. No internet. No air conditioning. Traffic lights off. Hospitals deprived of electricity. Tens of thousands of household fridges and freezers without power. Milk curdling. Vegetables rotting. The risks of delaying energy-saving measures have been all too apparent in a Chinese region where the authorities initiated draconian rationing last month to achieve the state's efficiency targets.
Anping County, in Hebei Province, cut electricity to homes, factories and public buildings for 22 hours every three days in a radical move that has highlighted both the serious last-minute effort that China is making to achieve environmental goals and the immense long-term difficulty of shifting away from a dirty, wasteful model of economic growth.
There are less than four months left until the end of China's current five-year plan, during which the economy is supposed to have become 20% more energy efficient. That target (which measures energy use relative to GDP growth) is crucial for a nation that wants to move up the economic value chain and prove to the world that it is making a significant contribution toward tackling greenhouse gas emissions.
Progress towards this goal was initially good, with a 14.4% gain in efficiency until last year. But it was tilted off track in the first three months of 2010 by huge infrastructure spending – largely on energy-intensive steel and cement projects – aimed at warding off the worst effects of the global economic downturn.
This meant China's economy surged forward at more than double-digit pace, but was having to burn more coal for each yuan of productivity. After this was revealed, the state council – China's cabinet – ordered the provinces to step up their efforts to reach the energy efficiency target by the end of the year.
During the summer, Zhejiang and Jiangsu – two of the most industrially advanced provinces – began intermittently cutting power supplies to factories. Similar measures have since been adopted in other regions and applied at a local level in different ways.
Last month, Anping went further than anyone by introducing rolling 22-hour electricity cuts among subunits. According to local media, at least two hospitals – Boai and Renmin – and one set of traffic lights were affected. Residents were given advance notice to stock up on candles and make other preparations.
"It was extremely inconvenient," grumbled a Mrs Wang, who declined to give her first name. "All the food in our fridge went off." But she said her shop, which sells diesel-powered generators, did a strong trade among local factories, most of which make wire fencing.
The indiscriminate cuts impacted industrial estates and poor rural communities alike. In Liukou village, one farmer – a Mr Liu – said he was told the measures were being applied for energy conservation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/19/china-blackouts-energy-efficiency
A glimpse from the (near) future, methinks