Future fuel

China has mapped out its renewable energy development plan for increasing the variety of energy sources and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The State Council, or China's cabinet, reviewed and passed a renewable energy mid- to long-term development plan on June 7, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The plan will serve as a guideline for the country - which has realized four straight years of double-digit economic growth mainly by burning coal to produce energy - as a way to shift to more clean and sustainable energy production.

According to the plan, China will accelerate the development of hydropower and energy generated through solar, wind, biomass and methane technologies.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, Xu Dingming, deputy director general of the Office of the National Energy Leading Group, said that by 2010 renewable sources should account for 10 percent of total energy consumption and will reach 16 percent by 2020.

Estimates are that by 2010 China's renewable energy will reach 270 million tons of coal equivalent. Installed hydropower capacity is expected to be 180 million kilowatts; installed wind power capacity is projected to be 5 million kilowatts; biomass power will contribute 5.5 million kilowatts and solar power 300,000 kilowatts. Fuel ethanol production will reach two million tons and bio-diesel output is projected to be 200,000 tons. Methane used is expected to total 19 billion cubic meters.

In the decade from 2010 to 2020, China will take a bigger step in developing renewable energy, according to the development plan. Installed hydropower capacity will increase to 300 million kilowatts. Wind power and biomass power share the same target of 30 million kilowatts. Installed solar power generation will hit 1.8 million kilowatts. Fuel ethanol and bio-diesel will be 10 million tons and 2 million tons. Methane use will be 44.3 billion cubic meters.

In 2005, China's renewable energy consumption exceeded 166 million tons of coal equivalent, accounting for 7.5 percent of the national energy use.

Although the country mapped out an ambitious plan to utilize renewable energy from water, sunshine and plant sources, it has some strict requirements, Xu said.

In the State Council meeting on June 7, Premier Wen Jiabao stressed that the development of renewable energy should avoid occupation of arable land, consumption of large amounts of grain or damage to the environment.

In fuel ethanol production, non-staple crops like sorghum, batata and cassava will become the new sources for fuel ethanol, supplanting the use of corn.

Last year, China produced 145 million tons of corn, 2.7 million tons of which was used as raw material for fuel ethanol production, some 2 percent of the total.

Xiong Bilin, deputy director of Industry Department from the National Development and Reform Commission, told a forum on fuel ethanol production held in Beijing over the weekend that the country will not approve new projects using food-based ethanol. The current four plants making ethanol from corn were urged to switch to new sources.

Among the four ethanol producing plants using corn as raw material, Tianguan Group based in Central China's Henan Province, China's major agricultural producing province, has already shifted 20 percent of ethanol production from corn to cassava. Annual output for the facility is 300,000 tons of ethanol.

Yet even with country's ambitious perspective on renewable energy, environmental experts warn that the country should be wary of environmental impacts brought by bio-fuel production and not only focus on energy security and cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Meng Wei, president of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, said at a recent forum that use of bio-fuels can also bring a negative contribution to environmental quality.

To produce one ton of fuel ethanol requires 60 tons of water, releases 300 million tons of wastewater.

Men warned that the pollutants could greatly deteriorate China's water.

(China Daily 06/16/2007 page3)