China's Energy Transition and its Global Implications

4–5 credits · Undergraduate

This course examines China's energy transition over the past two decades and the country's emergence as a global leader in clean energy manufacturing and adoption. Combining lectures, discussions, case studies, and field visits to firms and energy sites, the course explores why China has pursued this transition and how its electricity, solar, wind, battery, and electric vehicle sectors have developed. Students will study the roles of industrial policy, environmental regulation, market competition, infrastructure investment, supply chains, engineering talent, and manufacturing know-how in shaping China's clean energy industries. The course also considers the global implications of China's rise in clean energy, including the effects of low-cost Chinese technologies on global decarbonization, trade tensions and industrial policy responses, Chinese outbound investment, and lessons for other countries seeking to build green industries while decarbonizing at scale.