Outline for Development of the New and Renewable Energy in China

(From 1996 to 2010)

 Introduction

As the foundation of national economy, energy industry plays a crucial role to the development of social-economy and the improvement of the national living standard. Under the circumstances of rapid growth in economy, the energy industry in China faces two challenges from economic growth and environmental protection.

Now, more and more countries in the world have come to realize that a sustainable society should be capable to satisfy the social demand while no any risks to the progress of the later generations. Therefore, the energy development in China should follow the principles of saving the energy, increasing its utilization efficiency and the utilization of more clean energy instead of high-carbon-containing mineral fuels as much as possible.

China has been the biggest coal production and consumption country in the world. Its coal consumption occupies about 76 per cent of the commercial energy consumption, which has become the main source of air pollution. One of the important measures in diminishing the environmental pollution is to extensively develop the new and renewable technology and its application in field of solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy, geothermal energy and ocean energy.

China is the biggest developing country in the world, with more than 900 million populations living in the rural areas. The shortage of energy and low-level utilization has seriously hindered the social-economic development.

Until now, 120 million people are not available with electricity, 5 to 8 per cent of the population has not been provided with hygienic drinking water, and about 70 million people have not been lifted out of poverty. Moreover, many forests have been over-chopped due to the shortage of energy, which results in the severe destruction of vegetation and worsening of ecological environment. 

Therefore, the new and renewable energy should be extensively exploited according to the local conditions, in particular the conversion into cost-effective electricity powered for light, TV sets and pumps for those remote areas and islands, so as to facilitate their development and bring economy and ecology in line. It is also a major component in the implementation of National Plan to support the poor.

In view of continuous and sustainable strategic in energy sector, China should seek a way for sustainable development. The new and renewable energy, which have no any or light pollutions to the environment, should be complementary to energy in the near future and the foundation of energy structure in the future as well.

The Chinese Government has paid great attention to the development and applications of the new and renewable energy all the way. After the 1992 United Nations Environmental and Development Conference, the Chinese State Council formulated ten tactics and measures to tackle the problems in the aspects of environment and development. It clearly pointed out that measures should be adjusted to local conditions so as to develop and popularize the clean energy in field of solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, tidal energy and biomass energy. 

China firstly worked out the report on the Agenda for the 21st Century in China ". Regarding the scientific and technological research and promotion the benefit of, projects on the new and renewable energy have been listed into the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth National Five Year Plans. 

Due to lower investment of funds and man power in this sector which comparatively can not match to the reality, the technology development on the new and renewable energy still existed a big gap compared with the developed countries, although progress have been achieved in the research and demonstration of some certain technology. In respect of the capital investment, the input even cannot compare to some developing countries.

The new and renewable energy abounds in China. It has made great progress in the aspect of development and utilization, which has laid down a good foundation for future development. Today, the new and renewable energy attracts more and more attention from people all over the world with extensive exchanging activities.

As a consequence, it is necessary to grasp the present favorable chance of development and enact the Outline for Development of The new and renewable energy for 1996 to 2010, which will be of profound significance to the sustainable development in the social-economy and environment.