China solar, wind to attract $780 bln investment by 2030 – research report

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China’s wind and solar sectors could attract as much as 5.4 trillion yuan (782 billion dollars) in investment between 2016 and 2030 as the country tries to meet its renewable energy targets, according to a research report published on Tuesday.

China has pledged to increase non-fossil fuel

energy to at least 20 per cent of total consumption by the end of the next decade, up from 12 per cent in 2015, part of its efforts to tackle air pollution and bring carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by around 2030.

To do that, China would need to raise wind and solar power’s share of primary energy consumption to 17 per cent by 2030, up from four

per cent in 2015, according to the report, published

by environmental organisation Greenpeace and

involving research by a government institute, a

 

 

Chinese university, and other groups.

Wind and solar power could reduce fossil fuel

consumption by nearly 300 million tonnes of

standard coal a year by the end of 2030,

equivalent to France’s total primary energy

consumption in 2015, the report said, assuming

China met its targets.

In its 2016-2020 “five-year plan” for renewables,

China’s National Development and Reform

Commission (NDRC) laid out a plan to raise total

wind generation capacity from 129 gigawatts

(GW) in 2015 to more than 210 GW in 2020, with

solar set to rise from 43.18 GW to 110 GW over

the same period.

 

 

Total renewable capacity, including hydropower,

would rise to 680 GW, 27 per cent of the national

total and up from around 480 GW in 2015, the

NDRC said.

The NDRC itself projected its plans would require

a total investment of 2.5 trillion yuan on solar,

wind and other renewables just over the

2016-2020 period.

However, the agency warned the country’s

electricity distribution system was still not flexible

enough to handle renewable power, and there

were still technological obstacles when it came to

connecting wind and solar to the grid, leading to

large amount of waste.

According to figures released last month by

China’s Electric Power Planning and Engineering

Institute, 49.7 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of wind

power failed to make it to the grid in 2016, up

from 33.9 billion kWh in 2015 and amounting to

17 per cent of total wind

power generation. (Reuters/NAN)

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