The Chinese government is drafting a stimulus package to increase the nation’s output of alternative energy by 2020 to reduce its dependence on more polluting coal and oil, the chief director of China’s Renewable Energy Society, Shi Dinghuan, said on May 5, 2009. About 80% of China’s electricity is produced by coal-fired power plants.
Wind power offers us a steady stream of income and it also isn’t subject to same volatility with coal prices, said Wang.
Net income at China Resources Power was down 47% in 2008 to HKD1.72-billion ($221-million) because of high coal prices. Coal reached a record last July and has since declined about 41%.
China’s power sector will perform much more strongly because of the drop in coal prices, said Wang. Our company will perform in line with that forecast, she said, without elaborating.
Wind power plants provides a return of about 15% on equity and the renewable form of energy will make up about 4.5% of the company’s total capacity by 2010 compared with about 1% now, she said.
Problems with distribution in China mean investment in cleaner-burning gas is doubtful to take off for at least five years in the power sector when national pipelines and other infrastructure are in place, Wang said.
China is planning renewable sources such as wind and hydro-electricity to produce about 15% of the nation’s energy by 2020.
The company’s electricity sales increased 13% to 5.7 million MW-hours last month, compared with the same period a in 2008, China Resources Power said in a statement on its Web site said on April 14, 2009.
Sales climbed 2.4% to 15.4-million megawatt-hours in the first quarter of 2009. A 1MW is enough to power a 10-story office building.
