Leadership in new energy development
Cooperating with the world to address global climate change, China looks toward renewable energy sources and stringent emission rules.
In building up hydro, nuclear, solar and wind power capacities, China aims at increasing renewable energy consumption to 10 percent by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020, with an emphasis on supplying advanced energy technologies to rural China for accommodating 750 million villagers in a more environment-friendly fashion.
By 2008, according to the Global Wind Energy Council, China had the largest wind turbines fleet in Asia, with a total power-generating capacity of 12.21 million kilowatts, which ranked the fourth in the world.
The government's incentives policies brought about more than 600 solar cell companies, mostly privately-owned, which manufacture 44 percent of the world's total cells for solar power devices.
More than 90 percent of the solar cells manufactured in China were exported to other countries to advance their green efforts. However, the production of these cells causes heavy pollution, leading to a greater emission debt in China's industrial areas.
Beijing, which has 3.7 million registered motor vehicles, is adopting harsher regulations on vehicle exhaust emissions than the U.S. federal standards.
Beijing has adopted Europe's standard for vehicular emissions. The European IV requires gas-fueled motor vehicles to emit less than 1.0 gram of carbon monoxide and 0.08 gram of nitrogen oxide per kilometer. The U.S.'s Tier 2 standard requires vehicles to emit less than 2.125 grams of carbon monoxide and 0.25 gram per kilometer.
At the cost of lowering its economic growth pace, China sets the target of cutting energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent and cutting emissions of major pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, by 10 percent between 2006 and 2010, a state guideline said.
NDRC statistics showed China cut its energy consumption by 10.1 percent from 2006 to 2008, which means it saved 300 million tons of standard coal and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 750 million tons. Last year, sulfur dioxide emissions fell by 5.95 percent and those of chemical oxygen demand (COD), a main index of water pollution, dropped by 4.42 percent.
In June, the NDRC said that from 2006 to 2008, China closed down energy-hogging small-sized coal-fueled power plants that were technologically obsolete. They comprised an aggregated annual power generation capacity of 38.26 million kilowatts. Iron and steel mills with respective production capacities of 60.59 million and 43.47 million tons each year, and cement factories that produced 140 million tons yearly were also closed.
Xie Zhenhua, vice minister in charge of the NDRC, said, "The goal has been halfway met, and the task remains arduous."
Still, two-thirds of China's energy supply is fueled by coal.
One of China's leading power suppliers, Huaneng Group, began in early July to construct the country's greenest power plant in Tianjin using the latest technologies. The 2.1 billion-yuan (US$307 million) power generation systems, which are expected to be put into operation in 2011, will emit only 15 percent of the nitrogen oxide emissions that old-fashioned power plants with similar generation capacity usually discharge.
Huaneng also built the country's first carbon-capture facility in a Beijing thermal power plant. However, Huaneng is not able to store the annually captured 3,000-ton carbon dioxide, but instead purify it for resale to local soda manufacturers.
"Capturing a ton of carbon costs at least 300 yuan, which is a lot for us," said a management officer at the Beijing plant. Huaneng tops the list of China's green power projects.
