The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has approved plans to build Luding hydropower station in Sichuan province and the Dongjing hydropower plant in Guizhou province and two wind farms. The project will have total capacity of 2,001 megawatt (MW). The Luding project will have four units of 230 MW each, while the Dongjing will have four 220 MW units. Wind farms Rudong, in eastern Jiangsu province and Guyuan, in northern Hebei province will have 100.5 MW capacity each.
As per Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration, it was time to restructure the nation’s energy mix by exploring renewable energy alternatives and boosting clean energy consumption.
China should increase investment in the renewable energy sector, even though the current financial crisis has temporarily cushioned the conflict between energy supply and demand, Zhang said.
The global financial crisis has made China look for a more sustainable mode of economic development with lower energy consumption and diverse energy resources.
As per NDRC, the RMB4 trillion stimulus package issued by the government in 2008 includes a RMB210 billion investment in energy conservation and ecological engineering.
Part of the 210 billion yuan spending distributed between November 2008 and March 2009 has already gone to local wind turbine manufacturing and household biogas in rural areas, Ren Dongming, vice director of the Renewable Energy Development Center, under the NDRC, said.