From Red to Green: China's Awkward Embrace of Alternative Energy

"These are the realities faced by companies seeking to make themselves more environmentally friendly in China, where coal is king. Coal-fired plants are quick and cheap to build and easy to run. While the Chinese government has set goals for increasing the use of a long list of alternative energies — including wind, biomass, hydroelectric, solar and nuclear — they all face obstacles, from bureaucracy to bottlenecks in manufacturing."

"Providing new coal power plants remains the path of least resistance under China's regulations. Alternative technologies have supply bottlenecks and lack trained labor. Even inefficient state-built coal-fired plants are difficult to replace with more efficient coal technologies because the newer replacements require larger sites."