Looks like high-speed rail hasn't affected the airlines much.
Chinese Aviation Industry
- Thread starter FriedRiceNSpice
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Looks like high-speed rail hasn't affected the airlines much.
Not much on lines over 500km, but severely affect lines under 500km except provinces not yet having HSR. I am sure those increases are primarily if not solely due to the increase of oversea travels and long-haul domestic travels (Beijing to Guangzhou etc.)
From 2016 to 2017, Chinese oversea tourists increased by 7% (by all transportation means) according to this link .
Oversea international air travel alone increased 7.4% by headcount.
So if we subtract the 7.4% from international travel, Air China's passenger count would have grown only 0.6%. Thanks, I didn't know that.
High-speed railroads use less energy than airplanes, so probably China as a whole has benefited.
Not only use less energy, but electricity can be generated with coal rather than oil. It is also cheaper and a train can carry more people than a small airplane.
China has plenty of coal. Oil not so much.
I think this was a good choice on the part of China. Airplanes will be used in more remote regions or in longer haul domestic and international flights.
China has plenty of coal. Oil not so much.
I think this was a good choice on the part of China. Airplanes will be used in more remote regions or in longer haul domestic and international flights.
Electricity can come from nuclear power plants too. I understand that China intends, where possible, to place new nuclear plants on the same site as existing coal plants. When the nuclear building is done, just switch the electrical connections. Voila, instant electricity. Does anyone know how far this program has gone?
Agree.
I am not sure about that calculation, but the implication is about right. The figures are sum of all Chinese airlines. Air China is only one of them, and it is not the biggest in domestic market.
Actually, it is not done like that. As far as I gathered, most of China's nuclear power plants are not built close to nearby coal fired plants. I guess it is for safety reasons. Coal fired plants can be and very often are built close to population areas, while nuclear plants are some distance away for easier contamination control in case of leakage, it also must be close to vast water supply (river or sea) for cooling of a nuclear meltdown.
If you meant nuclear program, China just surpassed Japan becoming the 3rd largest nuclear power producing country as of January 1st 2019. The projection is that by 2020 China will replace France as the 2nd.
It is mostly geography dependent. Coal is mostly used in the North of China close to where the coal mines are. Nuclear power is mostly used in the South, where coal would be expensive to transport, in highly populated cities, where air pollution is more of a concern.
Northern China seems to be moving towards natural gas power generation inside cities to reduce pollution but that will only speed up once the pipeline to Russia becomes available.
Without paying attention we have drift away from aviation
. So allow me to make my last word to the power plant thing.Coal mines are primarily in norther China, especially Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, but the largest coal fired power plant is in Shanghai and all over China. Most of coal from Shanxi and Inner Mongolia are transported to power plants all over China, north and south. You haven't seen the coal trucks in Beijing
some years ago. China has just finished building a dedicated railroad from Inner Mongolia to southern province Jiangxi. China has tried what you suggested "powerplant at the mine" (坑口电站), not very successful though.To give you a feeling, here is a list from wiki of big coal powered plant, I mark the location of the Chinese ones.
China is not producing electricity from natural gas, not in a meaningful scale anyway. The newly acquired natural gas source is primarily to replace coal based heating and cooking, down to the village level in northern China. My sister-in-law's home in a small town in northern China just got pipes run into their house last year. China may but unlikely for the moment to increase gas generated electricity because China does not have much gas reserve, nor does China for the moment has the big gas-turbines. Import is never a good alternative for essential electricity generation because price is out of China's control.
Besides, one should not assume that coal is naturally dirty than gas in case of electricity generation. It is only dirty when burnt directly by household stoves and heaters. Morden coal fired power plant is very clean, check the Shanghai Waigaoqiao power station. Coal and gas are equally "polluting" in generating CO2, that's all. So for this reason, there is no advantage for China to switch from coal to gas in power generation, but only the risk of fluctuating import price.
Nuclear power depends on Uranium ore which China does not have much either, but at least it is cleaner than gas and coal, provided everything works fine.
The true future is Solar, Hydro and Wind, and best of it is that China has abundantly all of them. Nuclear is a good compliment. Coal could be kept as an backup in security reserve like oil and gas.
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