New Boost to Renewable Energy

Chinese government announced in late November that renewable sources will generate 15 percent of the nation's energy by 2020. This reinforced a plan charted out by the Long Term Plan for Renewable Energy passed this August. Currently, renewable energy can meet 8 percent of total energy use.

In the new plan, hydropower, wind power, solar and biomass energy are the key areas. The government will set favorable prices for wind power and solar power, using government subsidies to foster the market until the cost is reduced to a more economically viable level. 

However, in August China's cabinet listed a few overheated industries that were marred by overcapacity. Surprisingly, wind power manufacturing made the black list. People were puzzled since wind power accounts for only 1 percent of the nation's energy supply.

In fact, there is a gap between manufacturing and application. The finger was pointed at facility manufacturing, not wind power generation. Currently, more than 100 Chinese wind turbines and other parts manufactures are scattered around China, boosting the nation's wind power installation capacity to 15 gigawatts. Among that, only a third are actually in use because the grid system is not ready to accommodate rapidly growing, yet intermittent wind energy generation. Many machines are sitting idle in wind farms, and many more will be sleeping in storage waiting for buyers.