Image: Schwnj/Wikimedia Commons
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has further revised up its solar power development target for 2015 by 50 percent from its previous plan, state media reported on Thursday.
The government has set a target for installed solar power generating capacity to reach 15 gigawatts by 2015 and wind power capacity to hit 100 GW, China National Radio reported, citing an announcement from the National Energy Administration.
The ambitious move may have been encouraged by a rapid increase in solar power installation in recent months after the government unified grid feed-in tariffs for solar projects for the first time in July, and offered a higher price for projects that would be put into operation before the year end.
China had doubled its 2015 solar power goal to 10 GW after the Japanese nuclear power crisis.
Installed solar power capacity at the end of 2010 was less than 1 GW in China, the world's largest exporter of photovoltaic products and home to some of the industry's top players, such as Trina Solar, JA Solar, Suntech Power and LDK Solar.
Annual solar power output will reach 20 billion kilowatt hours by 2015 and wind power output 190 billion kWh, China National Radio said in a text report posted on its website (www.cnr.cn).
Of the planned 100 GW wind power capacity in 2015, 5 GW will be built in the ocean, it said.
The overall wind power capacity goal was the same as that in the previous plan.
Non-fossil energy production including wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and nuclear power will amount to 480 million tons of standard coal in 2015, the report added.
(Reporting by Jim Bai and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
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13 Comments
Add CommentThey will show us how it is done.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think they will continue to be the world's largest producer of electricity using coal fired power plants, although it's difficult to tell from the use of standard tons of coal equivalent units...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey have a terrible pollution problem related to coal-fired power plants, which is probably a big factor in their push into renewable/green energy. Beijing now is like London 100 years ago with killer smogs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey've got all that surplus wind and solar manufacturing capacity now that suckers in the West have stopped buying. Have to keep em employed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHelps with the marketing too.
Lotsa Hydro power available for load balancing and storage sure helps as well, if they can get their grid built to handle it.
Main growth and coal replacement technology is of course nuclear power.
You should be taxed double, for selfish thinking.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost people are going without extras, just to feed their kids.
By 2015...hint....China will add 23% more fossil fuel (coal) fired plants by 2015. This dwarfs the output of solar and wind combined.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's sad how unScientific American laps this fluff up.
But without the added wind and solar output, they would have to add EVEN MORE coal power capacity. Did you think of that?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSolar power will be insignificant percent of China's total energy production.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs other commenters remarked, Scientific American newspiece uses two different power units (MW and tons of coal) instead of converting them to one, which hides this fact.
Shame that Scientific American mixes information with propaganda. Well-meaning propaganda, but propaganda. If scientific education source does it, how can you accuse industrial sources of doing the same?
What America needs now is a comprehensive, long-term energy strategy which emphasizes green/renewable energy sources both for national political and economic security (to eliminate dependency on OPEC oil and the attendant massive shifts of our capital to OPEC countries) and to mitigate global warming.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't think that China's energy platform is entirely informed by progressive environmental ideology. There are several key economic and political reasons for the CCP's support of renewable deployment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. They are trying to move up the value-chain into technologically-advanced industries that are seen to be key to future economic growth. Higher domestic consumption will help support these industries.
2. They are encouraging their citizens to spend more to improve the economy by reducing the savings rate.
3. They are trying to avoid international condemnation for being the greatest carbon emitter.
4. They hate their lack of energy-independence.
timquijano.com
China is now the #1 installer of Wind Energy in the World even though they have an abysmal 12% Capacity Factor. Only 72% of their Wind Turbines are even grid connected - the rest are doing what the Chinese call "sunbathing". There is not-a-chance-in-hell Wind Energy is profitable for China, except to facilitate exports. And most of them are being installed in the boonies, So in Mongolia - Wind blows you have refrigerator, lights, TV otherwise back to the radio & burning camel dung.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisChina is also doing the same with Solar, on a much smaller scale. Starting a new push to install Solar PV - they've been embarrassed by the fact that 99% of their Solar PV goes for export. Don't look too good when you won't use your own crap. Kinda sounds like China is pumping out Solar PV by the GW because there is a whole lot of GULLIBLE FOOLS and GREENIE NUTBALLS in the West who will buy the most expensive Energy Source Ever!
Meanwhile, the real Green Energy program in China is a massive expansion of conventional Hydro and Nuclear Energy.
Notice that whenever convenient for their disinformation campaign, Greenies call conventional Hydro renewable, like when they want to make "renewable energy" sound practical, when it obviously isn't, but when it comes to dishing out funding and subsidies, conventional Hydro is NOT INCLUDED in the Greenie classification of "Renewable Energy".
@dwbd
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn (Inner) Mongolia, its kerosene generators, not camel dung.
Agreed that solar energy is not climate friendly, because greenhouse emissions during the production chain are hardly smaller than ones saved during solar panel lifetime.
This is mostly niche product for remote sun-baked places, and subsidies from half-informed Western environmentalists.
the realization is from within ones self. we all know this from the beginning of time.
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