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China leads renewable energy development
China, the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, is poised to lead world production of solar cells, wind power turbines and low-carbon energy technology.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 00:24 August 2, 2008
New York: China, the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, is poised to lead world production of solar cells, wind power turbines and low-carbon energy technology.
China is already the world's largest renewable-energy producer as measured by installed generating capacity, according to a report on Friday from the Climate Group, a coalition of companies and governments that support solutions to global warming. The country is also the world's top manufacturer of solar cells and will be the leading exporter of wind turbines by 2009.
China's position as a renewable-energy consumer and manufacturer runs counter to its ranking as one of the world's biggest polluters and the country's rapid expansion of coal-fired power generation. About 75 per cent of China's electricity comes from coal, said Changhua Wu, China director for the Climate Group.
"They have to do clean energy because they can't just do more and more dirty energy,'' said Michael Liebreich, chief executive officer of London-based New Energy Finance Ltd., which provides research to clean-energy investors. "We're seeing China as being a Number 1, 2 or 3 player in lots of different sectors in this industry.''
Coal power plants
China is closing older coal-fired power plants and replacing them with more efficient coal generators, Changhua said. While China will continue to rely on coal to fuel its rapid growth, state officials understand the need to transit to clean energy, she said.
The government wants to reduce the amount of energy China uses to produce each unit of economic output by 20 per cent in two years and has told its 1,000 largest energy-consuming companies to cut their power consumption even more, the report said.
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