A Green Grid Rolls Off the Blueprint

The Renewable Energy Law of 2006 has put the development of Chinas new energy industry onto the fast track. Government investment in this sector has grown at an annual rate of 20 percent over the past few years. In 2008 support for new energy enterprises reached RMB 3.8 billion. This is just the beginning for this industry.

The government has laid out a series of green energy development plans and kicked off some large-scale projects this year, including a 10-million-kW wind and tidal power station referred to as the “Maritime Three Gorges Project” in East Chinas Jiangsu Province, a 12..71-million-kW “Terrestrial Three Gorges” wind power project in Northwest Chinas Gansu, and Chinas first 10,000-kW photovoltaic grid, also in Gansu Province. Meanwhile, the worlds largest hydro-generator with a total installed capacity of 18.2 million kW at the Yangtze River Three Gorges has passed its final acceptance test.

China plans to increase the share of renewable energy in the total amount of energy consumption from the current 9 percent to around 40 percent by 2050. According to Wang Jun, director of the New and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Bureau, this is not merely expediency in the face of unpredictable oil prices on the international market. More important than that, the application of green energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have a significant impact on global climate change.

At the UN climate change summit held in New York this past September 22, President Hu Jintao stated that China would exert great effort to develop renewable energy and nuclear energy and increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 15 percent by 2020.