Outline for Development of the New and Renewable Energy in China

(From 1996 to 2010)

 The Present Situation and Gap

General Situation in Overseas

Since the 1970s, many countries in the world have reinforced their supports to the development of the new and renewable energy in view of the limitation on conventional energy and increasing pressure from environmental protection.

The U.S Government established a national solar power plan in 1973, and listed the photovoltaic power into the national public grid plan in 1980. The total investment has reached more than 800 million US dollars. In 1992, the U.S Government published a new schedule to support the development of photovoltaic power, aiming to hit the target production of the solar cells up to 1400 megawatts by the year 2000 which is equivalent to 10 times of the present total production capacity on solar cells in the world. In the financial budget of 1994, more than 78 million U.S dollars was to be appropriated in utilization of photovoltaic power, increasing by 22.4 per cent than 1993. 

Countries for instance Japan, Germany, others in European Economic Community and some developing countries also established their development outlines and plans to increase the investment input on the development and exploitation of the new and renewable energy.

At the same time, policies and measures were adopted in many countries to encourage the development and utilization of clean energy. For example, the Danish Government compensated 100% of erection fee to the users installed the wind turbine. This policy will be gradually decreasing until finally cancellation accompanying with the improvement of wind turbine technology.

In recent years, great progress has been made in the development and utilization of the new and renewable energy. Until now, the world annual production on solar cells has reached more than 60 MW with the conversion efficiency of 15 per cent. The cost for system and generation has decreased to 4 dollars per crest watt and 25 cents per kilowatt-hour respectively. In the utilization of solar power, solar energy has become to be utilized in larger scale due to the ripe technology in nowadays. Only in the United States, the annual sales on solar energy water heaters can amount up to one billion dollars. Technology in solar power also made a breakthrough. At present, there are more than 20 large-scale solar power stations being built or under operation.

Wind power technology also developed rapidly. Its production and application can be realized in scale. By 1992, the global installed capacity of wind power reached 2.7 million kilowatts with the generating capacity of 4.7 billion kilowatt hour. In recent years, the United States and some countries in Europe have concentrated on the research and exploitation of the third generation of wind turbines which are featured with light weight, reliable performance, heavy energy generation per unit area and cost-efficient installation. Moreover, the generation cost can reduce to 4-5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Biomass energy, as low-carbon energies, its techniques have drawn the right consequences. As early as in 1950s, countries for instance Britain, Germany, France, Japan, the United States as well as the former Soviet Union have adopted the anaerobic digestion process to dispose the domestic and industrial wastewaters. This process not only can treat the contaminations, but can acquire energy as well. 

Agricultural waste such as rice chaff and bagesse directly used to generate electricity or being pyrolyzed and gasified to generate electricity, are nothing new in many regions and countries, for example in North America, West Europe, Japan and Brazil etc. In the United States, the installed capacity has reached up to 4 million kilowatt hours. It has been a long desire for scientists to converse the biomass energy into liquid fuels as the replacement of petroleum by use of the liquefaction technology. It has come true in the United States and some other countries in 1980s. 

Hydrogen energy, as one of non-polluted and clean energy and an energy carrier, its development and applications have attracted high attention in the industrial countries in recent years, large funds being allocated to proceed the research and exploitation. For instance, Japan has worked out a hydrogen development plan into its ¡°Sunlight Plan¡±; Canada developed and utilized hydrogen energy by electrolysis to make full use of their abundance hydro resources; in Europe, hydrogen energy are developed by use of nuclear energy; in the United States, a municipal hydrogen supply system will be built up to provide fuel-cells for 300,000 vehicles by 2020, which will greatly reduce the energy consumption of vehicles. 

Application of hydrogen energy is expected to be of rapid development in the 21st century.

The Present Situation in China

The new and renewable energy abounds in China. The hydro energy likely to be exploit is 378 million kilowatts, of which, 11 per cent has been developed. Biomass energies, including stalks, firewood and other varieties of organic wastes, equal 260 million tons of standard coal, occupying 70 per cent of domestic energy consumption in the countryside and 50 per cent of the total energy consumption. China, with the land area of about 9.6 million square kilometers, its annual solar radiant quantity exceeds 600,000 joules per square centimeters. Therefore, its prospect to develop is of broad significance. The total amount of wind energy hits 1.6 billion kilowatts, of which about 10 per cent is likely to be exploited. The Geothermal resources need to be further exploited. So far, the reservations on geothermal resources explored equal about 462.6 billion tons of standard coal, of which only one over a hundred thousand has been utilized. Ocean energy is also very rich in China, among which the tidal energy likely to be exploited is over 20 million kilowatts. 

In recent 20 years, great progress has been made in China in the development and utilization of the new and renewable energy. It has become an indispensable component part of the present energy system. Now, the new and renewable energy can provide about 300 million tons of standard coal a year, among which is the biomass energy not listed into the commercial energy statistics. They have played an important role in the development of national economy and meeting the demand of the living standard in rural and remote areas. The main achievements are as follows:

1.        Achievements have been acknowledged in the development and utilization of small hydropower generation. By the end of 1993, more than 60,000 small hydropower stations have been built and put into operation. At present, electricity is available for 97% of the town, 92% of the village and 87% of the household. Small hydropower, as an effective energy in rural areas, plays an important role to realize the electrification in rural areas. Now, 109 counties have realized preliminary electrification, and 200 counties are being developed to realize electrification secondly.

2.        Obvious progress has been made in construction of fuel forest and development of firewood energy. For 13 years since ¡°the Sixth Five-year Plan¡±, the construction on fuel forests in China was more than 4.72 million hectares, making the total area of the fuel forest up to 5.4 million hectares. Plus reasonable production of firewood from other forests, which is about 100 million tons of standard coal, it is be of significance to develop the firewood forests as a stall tactics for the shortage of energies in rural areas and a measure for the protection of forests, vegetation and ecology.

New progress is also made in the utilization of biomass energy. Now, more than half of the farmer households have applied high-efficient wood-saving stoves in cooking which can save one-third to a half of the fuels consumption every year. The application of methane in households tends to stable development after being surmounted its change radically. There are 5.25 million methane tanks in China, with an annual production capacity of over 1.2 billion cubic meters of methane. Large and medium-size methane projects, as energy and environmental protection technologies, have sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain, among which more than 600 methane projects with a generating capacity of 100 cubic meters of methane and supplying households up to 84,000. Comprehensive utilization of methane is to be developed in line with the ecological agriculture and the sustainable development in rural area. In order to further improve the applications of biomass energy and its utilization efficiency, research and development on new technology to converse the agricultural wastes to qualified gas or liquid fuels. Demonstration projects have been also built.

3.        Applications on solar energy enter a new stage of development. In respect of solar heat, it mainly utilizes as solar energy water heaters, solar stoves, passive-type solar houses and solar energy dryers. Through ten years¡¯ efforts, technologies in the above four fields have basically reached the quality standard. Scientific research achievements have been produced into products in small scale in varieties of degree with a certain of promotion and applications, which have played an effective role in compensating the shortage of conventional energy and in reducing the worsening of ecology and environment. According to incomplete statistics in 1993, China has popularized solar energy water heaters of 2.3 million square meters, passive-type solar houses of 1.8 million square meters, solar energy crop warm houses of 342,000 hectares, solar stoves of 140,000 sets and solar energy dryers of 13,200 square meters. For a domestically made solar energy water heater, an average of one square meter can save 100 to 150 kilograms of standard coal per year. For a passive-type solar house, an average of one square meter of floor space can save about 20 to 40 kilograms of standard coal a year in operation of heating. For a solar stove, it can save 500 to 700 kilograms of straw or wood. Its energy saving and social benefit has been very obvious.

The solar energy photovoltaic power applies in China from 1970s, actually developed after 1982. From 1983 to 1987, China introduced seven solar-cell production lines from the United States, Canada, etc., making its yearly solar-cell production capacity of 4.5 megawatts in 1988 than 200 kilowatts before 1984. In respect of its applications, solar cells are mainly used for telecommunications system and in the remote areas no available of power, with the annual sale of 1.1 megawatts. So far, China still has twenty-eight counties, more than one thousand villages and a thousand of islands where there are no electricity. Photovoltaic power generation will play an effective role in solving the problem of power supply in these remote areas.

In Tibet, 2 photovoltaic power stations have been built with the capacity of 10-kilowatt and 20-kilowatt respectively among 9 counties where there are still no-hydraulic power and no electricity. The other 7 counties have also been listed into the state plan being under construction. Regarding to the research of solar cell, the efficiency of the practical model of the single-silicon cells reached 12 to 13 per cent, while the multi-silicon cells, 9 to 10 per cent, and non-silicon cells, 5 to 6 per cent. Although there are no any differences in the lab standard with other countries in the research of high-efficient silicon cell and non-silicon cell, the producing conversion differs considerately, which some development on innovative and potential solar cell remains blank in China.

4.      Development and applications on wind energy are still undergoing. The total installed capacity of wind power generation was up to 26,000 kilowatts. Since 1980s, after 50 to 200 watt small wind turbine successfully developed and put into production, about 120,000 sets are now under the operation in the grasslands of pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai and other coastal areas where there is no grid connection. It provides power for watching TV and lighting for the herdsmen and fishermen in these areas. Now, 1 to 20 kilowatt small and medium size wind turbines can put into production in small scale, while large and medium size wind turbines with 50 to 200 kilowatt are undergoing the development and 14 wind turbine farms are being constructed. At the same time, two new types of wind power water hoisters have also been developed with the performance of lower lift and higher flowing rate, higher lift and lower flowing rate respectively. Moreover, progresses have also been achieved in the area of investigation on wind energy resources, performance test on the wind turbines, research on basic theory and comprehensive utilization of wind energy, as well as the understanding on the technology of introduced wind turbines and commissioning of wind farm.

5.        Progress has been also made in development and utilization of other the new and renewable energy. In China, geothermal resources which having been exploited for applications, equal 4 million tons of standard coal. It is noticeable that among the development and utilization of geothermal resources in Tibet, Yanbajing has been the largest geothermal power station in China with an installed capacity of 25,000 kilowatts generating 97 million kWh every year and providing 50 per cent of electricity for Lhasa power grid. In respect of the development and utilization of ocean energy, several tidal power stations have been built with a total installed capacity of 5930 kilowatts and annual generating capacity of 10.21 million kWh. Wave pilot power station is also under the construction. The development on the potential new energy like hydrogen are undergoing in the lab.

Existing Problems

It is unquestionable that China has achieved great progress in research, development and utilization of the new and renewable energy in recent 20 years, among which some even pioneered in the world. But generally speaking, it still exists a great gap comparing with the world level, no matter in research, development and utilization scale or industrialization.

The main problems are as follows:

• Not listed into the state energy construction plan;
  

• Not listed into the normal financial channel to appropriate funds at different levels of governments;
  

• Lack of related policies and laws to push forward and support the development and popularization of the new and renewable energy. 
  

• Lower investment input in the new and renewable energy. For example, investment in solar energy was not as much as one per cent of that in the United States, even not as much as in India and some other countries.
  

•  Lower commercialization and weak industrialization.