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David Fishman Profile picture
@pretentiouswhat
Jun 20, 2021 • 18 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
Hi! I often tweet long threads about China's energy sector, mostly grid, renewables, and nuclear.

This is a master collection of my favorites, from oldest to newest.

I will add more as they are created and remove oudated ones.
1. The messy recent history of China's nuclear power industry:

2. A summary of China's regional power grids and dispatch model:

3. A discussion of China's renewable power subsidies and tariff structure:

4. A pretty nerdy and niche summary of how engineers design nuclear power plants to be safe from airplane strikes.

5. An introduction to China's UHV transmission network:

6. China's power shortages in December 2020: Translation of Caixin article + commentary.

7. A short thread about barriers to increased Chinese RE investment in BRI:

(was hoping to expand on this, but my project's funding was yanked and I started doing other things).

8. Everything you wanted to know about nuclear waste:

9. A short thread about the competitiveness of Chinese nuclear exports:

10. Helping out a confused man who didn't know much about nuclear power or China:

(got myself blocked for my efforts)
11. A thead about pumped hydropower storage in China:

12. A history of renewable energy Feed-in-Tariffs in China.

13. Why the Fukushima wastewater release really isn't that big of a deal:

14. Commentary on new RE consumption quotas for Chinese provinces in 2021:

15. A commentary on the Taishan radioactivity release alarmism:

16. Translation/commentary of the subsequent NNSA press release re: Taishan

17. A commentary on Guangdong's new direct power purchase rules for Renewable Energy - important for corporates.

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More from @pretentiouswhat

David Fishman Profile picture
Jul 24
"There are currently almost 20,000 men under the ground, right at this moment, all digging coal?"

Mr. Qi smiled and nodded. "Yes that's right".

In Off the Beaten Track this week, I visited a coal mine in China's famous Ordos City in Inner Mongolia. Here's what I found.🧵 Image
The way most people have heard about Ordos, a small city in central Inner Mongolia close to Shaanxi, is to see it referred to as a "ghost city".

It's not, and it never was, but that's the unfortunate reputation (more about this topic another day).

Ordos is a major energy hub. Not does only have excellent wind and solar resources, but also (and probably most famously and importantly for its economy) Ordos sits atop massive coal deposits.

Ordos is one of the 3 key coal-producing regions of China, one of three with its own domestic price index (Ordos 5500). The other two are Yulin (Shaanxi) and Datong (Shanxi).Image
On our recent visit to visit energy infrastructure in Ordos with @jerometenk, I asked a Shanghai friend from Ordos who has classmates still working in the coal sector back home for some introductions.

That's how we met Mr. Qi, who runs a coal trading business there.
Read 25 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Jul 23
⚡️China Power Consumption Update June 2025 ⚡️

In June 2025, China's power consumption grew 5.4% year-on-year to 867 TWh in one month (or 867 billion kilowatt hours, as China likes to report).

This is roughly equal to June or July's monthly consumption from 2023... 🧵 Image
Industrial power consumption rose 3.2% YoY in June, reaching 549 TWh. Still slower growth than GDP, but at least a slightly recovery vs May, which was truly poor at just 2.2% YoY growth. Looks like manufacturing is readjusting to the tariff impacts and picking up again. Image
Power consumption in the services sector resumed its aggressive trend as well, rising 9% YoY in June to 176 TWh.

Services portion of GDP was up 5.7% over Q2, rising faster than manufacturing, which drove a portion of this increased power usage. Image
Read 7 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Jul 20
A thread of other things from Yiwu I thought were cool but didn't have space to put into my bigger thread:

These kebabs at Afghan restuaurant Ariana. Image
These braised lamb trotters at the halal night market. Image
Future Cola! Image
Read 28 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Jul 19
Off the Beaten Track: Yiwu City, Procurement Paradise

I recently visited Zhejiang's Yiwu for the first time.

Yiwu is the small commodities wholesale procurement Mecca of the world, but it's still relatively unknown outside of certain sectors. So, let me tell you about it. 🧵 Image
I wasn't actually sure if I should include Yiwu in my "Off the Beaten Track" series. To be sure, the smallish county-level city of Yiwu IS actually pretty well-known in the supply chain and sourcing sector. And most Chinese people would know it too. Sure, it's not famous like Chengdu or Wuhan, but you can find people visiting in a ton of videos on YouTube, and international media likes Yiwu as well, especially Yiwu International Trade City, the largest wholesale light products marketplace in the world. So, I wondered, is it really off the beaten track?

In the end though I decided it indeed qualifies after mentioning it to a few non-China people and getting blank stares. Plus, although Chinese people know it, it probably wouldn't be in the top 50 cities for domestic or international tourism, or even top 100...

Honestly, this is a shame, because if you have any kind of interest in international economics, trade flows, or globalization, Yiwu might be one of the most educational places you'll ever visit.Image
Yiwu is in central Zhejiang, about a 2 hours’ ride south of Shanghai on the high-speed rail. Administratively, it's part of the prefecture-level city of Jinhua, but it has a very strong identity of its own. I was told locals quite resent being categorized as part of Jinhua.

Perhaps it’s because Yiwu was an independent city for most of its history until a restructure under the KMT govt in the 1920s finally made it part of Jinhua...

Perhaps it’s because the population of Yiwu (1.9m) is larger than the population of Jinhua proper (which governs a total of 7m people, including Yiwu, but has a downtown metro population of just 1.5m)...

Or perhaps it’s because Yiwu is the actual economic anchor of the region, moreso than its "parent" city. Yiwu even has an airport; Jinhua doesn’t.

Well, whatever the reason, there’s a lot of Yiwu pride.Image
Image
Read 33 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Jul 10
So! China released its new renewable power consumption quotas yesterday and added heavy industry into the list of obligated entities. A Big Deal!

I last wrote a thread about China's RPS ~4 years ago, but things have changed since then, so it's time for a commentary refresh. 🧵
But first, the basics. An Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a mandate for a company to consume a certain minimum % of renewable power in its electricity mix.

Different countries handle this in different ways. In China, it varies on a provincial basis. Image
In China, the RPS system is divided into "renewable power including hydro (the first column) and "renewable power excluding hydro (the second column)"

So an obligated entity in...Gansu, for example, must consume at least 52.76% renewable power, and 28.84% must be non-hydro. Image
Read 17 tweets
David Fishman Profile picture
Jul 10
"Nail Houses" in Shanghai Old City - Interview With a Local

You know Chinese "nail houses" - those local residents whose properties (and their demands for compensation) impede developers' aspirations, sometimes for years. I've tweeted about it before:🧵

The most famous stories are often in rural areas, where standalone nail houses are striking and obvious, requiring highways or trains to make awkward detours.

But anyone could become a holdout, including someone in an apartment in the Shanghai old city. Image
The "Shanghai old city" refers to a part of modern Huangpu District around what used to to be the city wall.

Today, the oval shapes of Zhonghua/Renmin Road follow the walls, and neighborhoods still refer to "gates" torn down 100+ years ago, but little else of the wall remains. Image
Read 21 tweets

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