Sebastien Le Belzic
Hit by a major heat wave, China is facing power cuts, in particular due to heavy use of air conditioning. The country is forced to make efforts to reduce its consumption. Factories have been shut down by the government for two weeks to limit electricity spending.
China this week triggered its first national drought alert of the year as the country has been breaking temperature records for two months now. On a wide strip of 2,000 kilometers that goes from Shanghai in the east to the city of Chengdu in the southwest, the thermometer has been regularly above 40 degrees for two months now. China is one of the countries where temperatures are rising the fastest, twice as fast as the global average.
A significant reduction in the water supply
And the consequence of this heat wave is drought. The rivers are dry. They no longer supply the hydroelectric plants and dispute the people of the local electricity company. “80% of the province’s electricity comes from hydroelectric plants. And this year, we are seeing very high temperatures, an exceptional drought not seen for 60 years, resulting in a significant reduction in the water supply. are at a standstill. The hydroelectric capacity of the province has fallen by half”, explains on Europe 1 the boss of the local electricity company. But is the Chinese government doing in the face of this drought?
artificial rain
To save energy, authorities announced that all factories in Sichuan province will shut down for a week. We are talking about car factories, petrochemical sites. They stop to allow electricity to be supplied as a priority to homes. China also relies on artificial rain by firing rockets filled with silver iodide directly into the clouds in places in order to bring down, it hopes, a few saving drops of rain.