China to develop renewable energy in it's West

Serious shortages of primary energy sources like oil and coal have prompted the mainland Chinese government to promulgate a law on the development of renewable energy sources. Solar energy could be the first choice as an alternative to fossil fuels. China's western areas, especially the Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Gansu, and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, have rich solar energy resources. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has a total radiation volume of 6,000-8,000 trillion joules per square metre annually, averaging 7 kwh per square metre, and the hours of sunshine total 3,400 per year. The radiation volume in Tibet ranks second in the world, just after the Sahara Desert. Accordingly, the western areas have boosted the development of solar energy resources in recent years. The Tibet Autonomous Region has put up more than 300 photovoltaic power stations ranging in size from 3-5kw. Seven counties in the region have built 10-100kw solar energy photovoltaic power plants, spread the use of independent photovoltaic power generating systems totaling 5,400kw, and installed 110,000 solar cook stoves.

The total power capacity of solar energy photovoltaic facilities in China exceeds 2.3 trillion watts. China started to set up solar energy photovoltaic labs in 1981, which began to develop rapidly ten years ago. The total power generated by solar cells and components grew greatly in 2003 to 12 trillion watts, 2.2% of the world's total, and 35 trillion watts in 2004, 3% of the global total. However, statistics showed that 85% of these products were exported. Experts attributed the smaller domestic use of solar components to high costs. Photo-voltaic power plants produce electricity at about 3.4 yuan per kwh, which cannot compete with energy generated by wind power and thermal power. Experts have advised that renewable energy be developed in four stages. The first stage, from the present up to 2010, is to realize the commercialization of parts of renewable energy technology that already exist, such as mini-hydropower stations, wind power fields, solar heating, and biogas/geothermal heating, by expanding demonstration projects.

The second stage will cover the period from 2010 to 2020, in which a large amount of renewable energy technology would be commercialized in order to raise the proportion of renewable energy sources in total primary energy production to 18%, and increase total installed capacity to 90-100 million kilowatts. The third stage will cover the 2020-2050 period, in which it is hoped that renewable energy sources will replace a considerable fraction of fossil fuel energy to raise the proportion of renewable energy in total primary energy production to more than 30%. The fourth stage will cover the 2050-2100 period, in which the proportion of renewable energy in the total energy consumption will be raised to more than 50%, thus realizing a fundamental change in the energy consumption structure. According to experts, the development of photovoltaic power will exert a far-reaching impact on the restoration of fragile ecosystems in the western part of the country. A project for the promotion of commercialization of renewable energy sources, launched jointly by the State Economic and Trade Commission, the Global Environment Fund and the World Bank, started in December 2001. The state has promised to give all-out support to this project.