To increase the level of renewable energy consumption in China the
country is to invest 1.5 trillion yuan (US$187.5 billion), said Wu
Guihui, vice-director-general of the Bureau of Energy under the
National Development and Reform Commission.
Currently 7.5 percent of China's energy comes from renewable
sources. The country's aim is to make this 10 percent by 2010 and
16 percent by 2020. The initial 2020 goal had been 20 percent but
was revised.
"Within 10 years we'll see a population of 30 million in all the
remote rural areas have access to electricity mainly from renewable
energy-powered projects," Wu told the Great Wall World Renewable
Energy Forum and Exhibition on Tuesday in Beijing. "The shortage of
fuel for daily consumption in rural areas will also be solved by
that time," said Wu.
The country would promote the development of the renewable
energy industry, introduce advanced foreign techniques and further
develop technology with proprietary intellectual property
rights.
Hydro-powered electricity capacity would rise from the current
117 million kilowatts to 190 million in 2010 and 300 million in
2020 when 70 percent of the nation's potential hydroelectric energy
would be exploited, Wu said.
From 2002 to 2004 China spent 4.7 billion yuan (US$587.5
million) on small-scale hydropower systems intended for rural
areas. Today they serve more than 5 million people in 12 provinces
and regions.
Meanwhile the capacity of biomass power will reach 5.5 million
kilowatts in 2010 and 30 million in 2020. For wind power it'll be 5
million kilowatts in 2010 and 30 million in 2020.
"A group of major hydro-power bases will be established along
major rivers," Wu said. "Scores of wind power plants, each with a
production capacity of 1 million kilowatts annually, will be set up
along the eastern coastal areas and northwestern and northern
China."
Solar energy would be extensively used in remote rural areas to
heat water and cook. As the world's leader in the use of solar
cells China would increase the total area of such cells to 300
million square meters by 2020.
"China has made some progress in the renewable energy sector but
is still in the initial stages," Wu said.
Hydropower produced 400 billion kilowatt-hours last year, 16
percent of China's total consumption, with the Three Gorges project
generating 48.6 billion kilowatt-hours. It's expected to generate
84.7 billion annually when complete in 2009.
But Wu said, "Two-thirds of water resources remain unexploited.
In the hydro-power sector we are facing challenges including
environmental protection and the relocation of residents. China
lags far behind Europe and the US in developing wind power though
it's a wind-rich country."
Half of China's cars will use cleaner fuels such as
energy-efficient diesel, gas and bio-fuel by 2025, said an official
Wednesday. Renewable and low-emission energy sources would replace
traditional gasoline to drive future Chinese vehicles, said Feng
Fei, director of the industrial economics research department with
the Development Research Center of China's State Council, at a
seminar.
"Bio-fuel and hydrogen are the ultimate substitutes for fossil
fuels," said Feng. He added that fossil fuels would remain the
major source of energy for Chinese cars but by 2030 cleaner forms
of these would take lead.
Feng dismissed oil produced from coal, which has been developed
rapidly in recent years, as a major alternate energy source for
automobiles. "The biggest problems of turning coal into oil are its
low energy efficiency and high emission of carbon dioxide in the
production process," said Feng.
Three to five tons of high-quality coal were required to produce
a ton of diesel bringing energy consumption to two to three times
that of gasoline-driven cars. The burning of the fuel emits 50 to
100 percent more carbon dioxide than that of gasoline.
With a larger reserve of coal than oil China could make oil from
coal as part of the country's strategic reserves but large scale
production was against the country's goal to improve the efficiency
of energy use and cut pollution, said Feng.
China has confirmed oil reserves of 24.8 billion tons and coal
reserves of more than one trillion tons. The Shenhua Group, the
country's top coal producer, plans to invest in three projects from
2011 to 2012 to generate 10 million tons of oil from coal.
It's estimated that China will need 450 million tons of
petroleum a year by 2020 with more than half of that being
imported.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency October 26,
2006)
