Beijing (China Daily/ANN)- The
proportion of China's energy that comes from non-fossil fuels in the next four years
and beyond will exceed the figure set in the country's 12th Five-Year Plan
(2011-2015) and other plans, industry experts said.
Their forecast was based on the
country's continued work to make itself more reliant on renewable sources of
energy, they said.
The central government has set
a goal of having China obtain 11.4 percent of its energy from non-fossil
sources by the end of 2015, up from 8 percent now.
And by 2020, the country is to
get 15 percent of its energy from non-fossil sources.
"We believe the real
proportion will exceed the planned proportion during the period of the
five-year plan and beyond, given the country's pace for the development of
renewable energy sources," said Han Wenke, director of the National
Development and Reform Commission's energy research institute, a government
think tank.
Previously, Han had said China
will obtain 20 percent of its energy from non-fossil sources by 2030 and 33
percent by 2050.
China where 90 percent of the
energy consumed comes from coal, crude oil and other substances with large
carbon contents is trying to rely more on renewable sources of energy to cut
its carbon emissions, which many scientists believe contribute to global
warming.
Zhang Guobao, former head of
the National Development and Reform Commission's National Energy
Administration, had said previously that the country will consume no more than
4 billion tons of coal or its equivalent by 2015. This past year, China used
the equivalent of 3.25 billion tons of coal to produce energy.
That ceiling for energy use is
in keeping with the country's pledge for carbon intensity the amount of carbon
it emits for each unit of its GDP. By 2020, the government wants that measure
to be 45 percent below what it had been in 2005.
The 12th Five-Year Plan marks a
"turning point" for the importance China places on economic growth,
the international consulting firm KPMG said in a report.
"The current plan's
emphasis on clean energy sources is an important step to ensure sustainable
growth for the nation," it said.
China obtains more than 50
percent of its oil from foreign sources and is likely to find that exploring
for new coal will become more difficult in the long run. It has therefore
looked more closely at hydro power, solar power, wind power and other sources of
renewable energy in recent times.
Shi Dinghuan, counselor for the
State Council, said those sources are more likely to be able to supply the
country's needs over the long run.
The central government has
adopted a slew of measures to increase the use of renewable resources.
The latest came when the
National Development and Reform Commission announced on Nov 30 that the
renewable energy surcharge on power sales would be doubled to 0.008 yuan a
kilowatt hour on Dec 1. Analysts estimate that will benefit renewal energy
projects, especially those pertaining to wind power.
In 2006, China established a
renewable energy law that requires power distributors to purchase all of the
power generated from sources of renewable energy.
The renewable-energy industry,
aided by both that law and by foreign expertise, expanded greatly in the
subsequent five years. The wind-power industry, for instance, has gone from
being next to non-existent to being a burgeoning business, Han said.
To support the development of
policies and technology for the industry, China, aided by the World Bank and
Global Environment Facility, is planning to start a second phase of a project
that will increase the size of the renewable-energy industry during the next
five years. The first phase of the same project is to come to a close by the
end of the year, said Shi Lishan, deputy director of the National Energy
Administration's new energy division and one of the chief leaders of the
project.
The project, named the China
Renewable Energy Scale-up Program, saw the start of its first phase in 2005 and
has since done much to improve the country's wind turbines quality.
Zhou Yan in Beijng/China Daily
| ANN
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