China plans to increase renewable energy use: official

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will continue to rely on coal for most of its energy needs, but will speed up development of renewable energy by planning new hydro and wind power plants, a senior official said in remarks published on Thursday.

The goal was to raise renewable energy to 10 percent of total energy use by 2010, said Zhao Xiaoping, head of the Energy Bureau under the powerful National Development and Reform Commission.

However, he did not disclose the percentage of renewable energy in current consumption.

Zhao wrote in the official Money China magazine that China would start building large and middle sized hydropower stations with total capacity of 15 gigawatts (GW) in 2007.

In 2006, China added 10 GW of hydropower generating capacity.

The country plans to lift total hydropower capacity to 190 GW by 2010, according to Zhao, which would account for 22.6 percent of a planned total generating capacity of 840 GW by 2010.

China had 128.57 GW of hydropower generating capacity at the end of 2006.

The country would also start constructing two wind power bases this year, one in coastal Jiangsu province and one in northern Hebei province, with at least 1 GW generating capacity expected to be available by the year end, Zhao said.

Last year, China built 2.3 GW of wind power farms.

Zhao said China will also accelerate the preparation work of two nuclear plants, one in Haiyang in eastern China's Shandong province and one in Ningde in southern Fujian province, and ensure construction work can begin during 2008-2010.

The goal is to have a total of 10 GW nuclear power capacity under construction during 2006-2010, He said.