| China's Wind Power Set to Hit 100 Gigawatts |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Friday, 18 July 2008 | ||
|
Wind energy plays a big part in China's plans to go renewable. Industry analysts at China Strategies LLC says the country's pace of wind development is two years ahead of schedule, doubling the current target of 10 gigawatts to 20 GW by 2010. A decade from then, China Strategies predicts that China will produce 100 GW by 2020, an increase in wind energy by 1,667%. At present China produces just 6 gigawatts of wind energy.The government is making policies that encourage wind power development, even though it remains costlier than coal power. More than 50 domestic manufacturers of wind turbines are already in the market and foreign producers are also in the country hoping to transform more wind into power. In a report released by by Washington (D.C.)-based Worldwatch Institute, Eric Martinot, one of the authors says in an interview with Buisness Week that China will easily exceed its wind power plan. "Wind power in China historically has been driven by a desire for industrial development," says Martinot, senior visiting scholar at the Tsinghua-BP Clean Energy Research& Education Center in Beijing . "But it is now being eclipsed by a desire for energy security. Beijing wants anything that can substitute for energy imports and anything that can stretch out China's coal reserves."
Comments
(2)
...
written by Tuan , July 18, 2008
Very ambitious goals set forth by China on renewables. Currently, I believe China is generating 8-9% of its electricity from hydropower and less than 1% is other renewables based on 2004 data. Its total energy demand in 2004 was 390GW. Since GDP growth has been 9-10% per yr and energy demand growth rate mirrors GDP growth, we can conservatively assume 9% annual growth rate up to 2020. That means by 2020, China demands 1550GW and 15% of that will be 232 GW of power needed from renewables. The chinese government targets 30GW wind power capacity by 2020 and some expansion of other renewables that would still leave a lot of energy demand from hydroelectricity. In 2005, wind capacity of china was only 1.3 GW as compared to the US, which already was 9 GW. It remains to be seen then if China could reach their targeted wind capacity by 2020. On a related note, China has also set ambitious goals for its Eleventh Five-Year Plan spanning 2006-2010, some of which already failed before the end yr 2010. Those goals to name a few were 10% reduction in major pollutants, 20% reduction in energy intensity, safe drinking water for 100million more people (nope, water crisis becoming a major problem due to increasing abuse of fresh water lakes).
Go Wind!`
written by The Food Monster , July 18, 2008
http://thefoodmonsterblog.blogspot.com
Regardless of how much percent of their total power, it is encouraging that they are increasing, and increasing substantially. | ||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Science, technology gadgets and...baby seals. We're in a bit of an eco-mess, but we've got the brains to lick any problem. And that's why EcoGeek.org publishes up to ten stories daily about innovations that are saving the planet.
And if that sounds interesting to you, then congratulations, you're an EcoGeek.
China needs a lot of energy to power its economy and the country's reliance on coal has led to major problems with unsafe work conditions and pollution. By 2006, China's energy requirements had become the second highest in the world, doubling its needs from the past decade.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
