The electricity industry is the fastest growing of all
industrial sectors. At the end of 2005, the installed capacity of
generators totaled 510 million kw, and the total generated
electricity came to 2,474.7 billion kwh, ranking second in the
world. Thermal power is the mainstay of electricity generation in
China; while the installed capacity of hydro power generators
exceeds 100 million kw, ranking first in the world; besides the 8.7
million kw capacity of nuclear power generators already producing
or under construction, China will build more nuclear generating
facilities with 36 million kw capacity before 2020.
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Power grid construction has entered its fastest ever development;
main power grids now cover all the cities and most rural areas,
500-kv grids beginning to replace 220-kv grids for inter-province
and inter-region transmission and exchange operations. An
international advanced control automation system with computers as
the mainstay has been universally adopted, and has proved
practical. Now, China's power industry has entered a new era
featuring large generating units, large power plants, large power
grids, ultra-high voltage and automation.
Starting in the 1980s, China has invested hugely into creating a
number of large-scale modern coalmines, resulting in a gradual
increase in coal output, maintained at over one billion tons a year
since 1989. China's coal industry now has the ability to design,
construct, equip and administer 10-million-ton opencast coalmines
and large and medium-sized mining areas. Coal washing and dressing
technologies and capability have constantly improved and coal
liquefaction and underground gasification are being
introduced.
Petroleum and natural gas are important energy resources. For nine
years running from 1997 to 2005, annual crude oil output exceeded
160 million tons, ranking fifth in the world. Oil industry
development has accelerated the growth of local economies and
related industries, such as machinery manufacturing, iron and steel
industries, transport and communications. In 2001, China's natural
gas output exceeded 30 billion cubic meters and reached 50 billion
cubic meters in 2005.
To relieve the shortage of energy supplies that fetters China's
economic growth, China is developing new energy resources, such as
wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal power. Its abundant wind energy
resources give China the potential for mass-produced wind power.
Between 2001 and 2005, the government invested 1.5 billion yuan in
the wind power industry. More than 200,000 small wind generators
already play an important power generation role in agricultural and
pastoral areas and, according to government targets, the national
installed capacity of wind generators is to increase by one million
kw every year, reaching 20 million kw by 2020. Given northern
China's rich wind energy resources, its wind power industry has
attracted domestic and overseas investment. Asia's largest wind
power station, with an investment of 1.2 billion US dollars and a
capacity of one million kw, will be completed in Inner Mongolia
before 2008. Meanwhile, in western China, with an average radiation
flux of three kwh per day, solar energy has been widely utilized.
Asia's largest demonstration base for solar heating and cooling
technology in Yuzhong County, Gansu Province, has become the
training center of applied solar technologies for developing
countries.
In February 2005, the Standing Committee of the National People's
Congress discussed and passed the China Renewable Energy Law,
stipulating the responsibilities and duties of government,
enterprises and users in the development and exploitation of
renewable energy and establishing a series of policies and measures
including systems for overall objectives, special funding and
preferential taxes and levies. The Chinese government will
progressively increase the ratio of consumption of the
high-quality, clean and renewable energy in the gross energy
consumption from 7 percent in 2005 to 13 percent in 2020.