China Energy Dashboard

Grid Summary

China is rapidly moving along the path of renewable energy development. By the end of the 11th Five Year Plan period in 2010 renewable energy will account for 10% of China's energy consumption. At the end of the 11th Five Year Plan period China will have approximately 190,000 MW of hydropower generating capacity, 73,000 MW of which will have been constructed during this period. Wind power is growing at a remarkable rate. During the 11th Five Year Plan period China will vastly exceed its own revised objective of having 10,000 MW of wind power capacity by 2010; it is quite possible that China's wind power installations will approach 20,000 MW by 2010. Power generated from bio-mass is also becoming a significant source of renewable energy in China; by the end of 2010 China will have in place 5500 MW of bio-mass power plants. With regard to bio-fuels, China will be producing more than 2 million TPY of bio-ethanol and 200,000 tpy of bio-diesel. Other sources of renewable energy also are growing rapidly in China, including methane gas fueling 40 million households and having a total of 150 million square meters of built space serviced by solar hot water heaters. In the long term China has set an objective of having 30% or more of its total energy requirements satisfied by renewable sources by 2050. China's ambitious growth target for renewable energy production will require an investment of approximately 2 trillion Yuan (~$263 billion U.S.D.) by 2020 alone…more information.

As the largest developing country, China sees achievement of overall economic and social development and improvement of the quality of people's lives as its top priority. China has its own sets of sustainable development goals, represented by the national vision of establishing "Xiao Kang," an all-round, harmonious society, by 2020. There is a rare similarity between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Xiaokang, as both envision a "people's agenda", and focus on the kind of development that makes a visible, measurable difference in the lives of people. Generally speaking, China has made enormous progress towards the achievement of its MDG's. Since 1990, poverty, especially absolute poverty in rural areas, has been greatly reduced. China has now achieved the target of halving the number of poor people from the 1990 figure of 85 million. Current national poverty reduction efforts target both absolute and relative populations. Some of the MDG targets such as primary education have already been achieved 13 years ahead of schedule. The Government of China supports international development cooperation as a means of narrowing the gap between North and South. The Government supports maintaining and improving the multilateral trade system to create a favourable trade environment for developing countries…more information.