New Energy in China

China has announced a creation of a high-level body to integrate its energy management, supervision and policies, functions that are currently dispersed among many government agencies.

The following is basic information about the use of clean and renewable forms of energy that China has been promoting to reduce its heavy reliance on coal.

Renewable energy will rise to 10 percent of total energy consumption by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020, according to the Medium- and Long-term Program for Renewable Energy Development released by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner. The figure for 2005 was 7.5 percent.

The plan would cost China 2 trillion yuan (266.7 billion U.S. dollars) during the 2006-2020 period, said Chen Deming, NDRC vice minister.

WIND POWER

China ranks fifth in the world in wind power installed capacity, far behind the world's top wind power producer, Germany, which has a total installed capacity of 20.62 million kilowatts.

Installed wind capacity in China was 6.05 million kw at the end of 2007, up sharply from 2.67 million kw a year earlier. Wind power projects under construction would add 4.2 million kw.

Last year, wind power generated 5.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, up 95.2 percent year-on-year. The growth rate was 22 percentage points higher than in 2006, according to figures from the China Electricity Council, an industry association.

China's first offshore wind farm, in the northeast Bohai Sea, began operation in November. The station was built by the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the country's largest offshore oil producer, at a cost of 40 million yuan (5.4 million U.S. dollars).

The unit is expected to have an annual output of 4.4 million kw/hr, which is equivalent to saving 1,100 tons of diesel oil annually and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 3,500 tons and sulfur dioxide by 11 tons, according to Zhou Shouwei, CNOOC's deputy general manager.

SOLAR ENERGY

China accounts for more than half of the world's solar-heated water use and half of the world's annual production of solar water heating systems, according to the NDRC. As of 2006, the coverage of solar water heaters in China hit 100 million square meters, benefiting about 200 million people. Coverage is projected to reach 150 million sq m in 2010.

China will use solar power extensively during the coming Olympics, according to Li Zhonghai, a senior official with the China Association for Standardization. He said that 90 percent of the hot water used in the Olympic village would be solar-heated and 80 percent to 90 percent of the street lights around the Olympic venues would be solar-powered.

BIO-ENERGY

China had built 21.75 million household biogas facilities by the end of 2006, amid efforts to promote clean energy use and improve rural energy efficiency, according to Kou Jianping, director of the energy and ecology division of the Ministry of Agriculture.

These facilities could produce 8.5 billion cubic meters of biogas annually, equivalent to saving about 13.3 million tons of standard coal or preserving 4.5 million hectares of woodland.

Kou said that China was actively promoting straw as solid and gas energy, as well as supporting power generation with straw, to better utilize energy resources in rural areas.

By 2020, about 300 million rural people will use biogas as their main fuel, when China will use 10 million tons of bio-ethanol and 2 million tons of bio-diesel to replace 10 million tons of oil annually, according to the NDRC plan.