China Targets 15% Energy from Solar and Wind by 2020
The United States is heading towards a similar target for solar and wind
* House bill requires 15 pct renewable power by 2020
* Obama, green groups wanted 25 pct renewable by 2025
China government planners said they could hit the 10 percent target by 2010. The China Daily quoted one vice minister who suggested the country might be able to hit a 20 percent target by 2020.
The new goal comes as China is also raising its projections for the amount of total annual energy it will generate by 2020 to 1,500 GigaWatts, a 50 percent increase from a target level set in 2007. China had installed capacity to generate 793 GW by the end of 2008, as much as two-thirds of that from coal
China Daily has details on china’s new energy plans
As previously reported, China is planning for 86GW of nuclear power in 2020 and 150 GW of Wind. Hydroelectric power will stay at about 20% with 300 GW of hydro in 2020.
China’s 2020 energy mix:
1500GW total
86 GW of nuclear power (almost 6% nuclear)
150-290 GW of Wind (nuclear actually providing more energy because of 34% capacity for wind, versus 90% capacity for nuclear). The 20% target for solar and wind means a lot more wind (10-19% from wind)
300GW of hydro (20% from hydro)
10 GW of solar (about 1% from solar)
100GW or so from biomass and natural gas (5-10% from natural gas and biomass)
Coal could be less than 50% of China’s energy mix in 2020.
China is cleaning up its coal plants as well. Changing to ultrahigh temperature reactors and IGCC reactors.
This year, China’s power capacity will surpass 900 gW.
Zhang said China would restructure its electricity supply mix by supporting more investments in nuclear, solar, wind and biomass energy resources.
In line with the revised target, the ratio of nuclear power to the combined installed electricity capacity would increase to 5 percent in 2020.
On solar power, the NDRC’s Energy Research Institute reported that China’s 2020 target would be expanded from 1,800 megawatts (mW) of installed solar capacity established in 2007 to 10,000 mW or more.
