Lu Wei

Currently, China accounts for about one-tenth of world energy consumption and the imported oil products account for about 48% of the country's total consumption of oil products. Meanwhile, its coal consumption accounts for nearly 70% of its total consumption of primary energies and its CO2 emission accounts for 39% of the world total or ranks second in the world, next only to the United States. Therefore, developing clean renewable energies is an important measure to ensure China's energy security and to ease its emission reduction pressure.

China boasts of rich renewable energy resources. Over the past decade or so, the country has made great progress in developing and utilizing new renewable energies, including wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, tidal power, biomass power generation and liquid fuels. As a result of soaring oil price, the market competitiveness of wind energy, solar energy, biomass energy and other renewable energies has become somewhat higher and the development of these industries has become faster. The state promulgated the Law on New Energies in 2005, the Law on Renewable Energies in 2006 and the Long and Medium-Term Plan for the Development of Renewable Energies in November 2007. These documents clearly defined the guiding principles, main tasks, development goals, priority areas and support measures for the development of renewable energies. As a result, China's development of renewable energies entered a new phase.

I. Current State of China's Development and Utilization of Renewable Energies

1. While renewable energies assume a higher proportion of energy consumption, new renewable energies still claim a fairly small share and play a supplementary role

Since 2005, China's development and utilization of renewable energies have been rising rapidly. The annual utilization of renewable energies (excluding the biomass energy utilized in a traditional way) was respectively 166 million tons of coal equivalent (TCE) in 2005, 180 million TCE in 2006 and 220 million TCE in 2007. They respectively accounted for 7.5%, 7.4% and 8.2% of the country's total consumption of primary energies (Li Junfeng: China's Policy Framework for Renewable Energies, China Renewable Energy Association, Jan. 2007). In 2006, wind energy, solar energy, biomass energy and other new renewable energies accounted for only 0.93% (Table 1).

Table 1 Proportions of Renewable Energies in China's Energy Consumption

Source: The 2006 data originated from Li Feng: China's Policy Framework for Renewable Energies, China Renewable Energy Association, Jan. 2007; the 2005 data originated from the Long and Medium-Term Plan for the Development of Renewable Energies, NDRC Document No.2174, 2007.

Over the past two years, the growth of hydropower and wind power has been fairly fast among renewable energies. Their power-generating capacity respectively rose by 13% and 94%. As the growth of the coal power-generating capacity also rose sharply, the share of the power-generating capacity of renewable energies in the total power-generating capacity was relatively stable. In 2006～2007, China's total power-generating capacity of renewable energies and nuclear power accounted for about 22.3% and 22.6% of the country's total power-generating capacity. Specifically, hydropower generating capacity was respectively 128 million KW and 145 million KW, accounting for 20.6% and 20.3%; nuclear power generating capacity accounted for 1.1% and 1.2% (power generation accounted for about 2%); and wind power-generating capacity accounted for about 0.4% and 0.8%. Compared with the world average level, China's power generation with renewable energies accounts for a fairly higher ratio of power supply but its nuclear power is far below the world average level of 15%.

2. China's total utilization of renewable energies ranks among the highest in the world while its relative intensity¹ remains at the world's medium-high level

In 2005～2006, China's investment in renewable energies was about 6 billion dollars, becoming one of the countries with the largest investment in this sector. In 2005, China's utilization of renewable energies (excluding the renewable energies utilized in the traditional way) accounted for about 13% of the world total, and its ratio of renewable energies to energy consumption was higher than the 5.7% world average level. Currently, China ranks first in the world in utilizing solar energy water heaters and methane generation and its production capacity of biomass liquid fuels exceeds 1 million tons, ranking third in the world. In 2007, China's grid-connected power generating capacity totaled 4.03 million KW, ranking fifth in the world; China's production capacity for solar energy photovoltaic batteries ranged between 0.8～1 million KW and its production in 2006 was 0.38 million KW, which was 16% of the world total and next only to the European Union and Japan (China-Britain Summit on Solar Energy: Solar Batteries Expected to Enter Low-Cost Era, http://www.cas.ac.cn/html/Dir/2008/03/06/15/61/16.htm) (Table 2).

Table 2 International Comparison of China's Development of Main Renewable Energies

Source: The Long and Medium-Term Plan for the Development of Renewable Energies and China Energy Development Report 2007, Social Science Documents Publishing House, March 2007; Li Junfeng & Shi Jingli: Present State and Development of China's Renewable Energy Technologies

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¹Relative intensity refers to the ratio of new renewable energies to all energies.