Support Plan Expected for Renewable Energy Development

The Chinese government is working on a support plan for the renewable energy industry aimed at raising the country's wind power capacity to 100-150 million KWh by 2020, sources close to the plan making told Xinhua on Tuesday.

Shi Dinghuan, member of energy research commission with Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the support plan would come out "in near future" without giving a specific date.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, is in charge of designing the renewable energy support plan, for which a draft has already been formed, according to Shi.

The plan would be based on a mid-to-long term planning on China's renewable energy development issued in 2007 with major adjustment in key indices, said Shi Pengfei, vice director with Chinese Wind Energy Association.

"China originally planned to achieve a wind capacity of 30 million KWh by 2020. The target could be hit in 2011," Shi said.

Statistics showed total wind capacity amounted to 12.15 million KWh in 2008 with newly installed capacity at 6.25 million KWh, up 89 percent from a year earlier.

According to the current planning, the country is expected to have by 2020 a hydropower capacity of 300 million KWh, biomass power capacity of 30 million KWh, and solar power capacity of 1.8 million KWh.

The State Council has issued support plans for 10 key industries such as automobile, steel, textile and garment sectors since January in a bid to stimulate China's economy, whose year-on-year growth slowed to a seven-year low of 9 percent in 2008.