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Renewable energy bounding ahead in China

China’s Push for Renewable Energy, donga.com[English donga] 18 May 2010, The popularity of renewable energy sources including wind, photovoltaic and biomass is growing dramatically in China. Beijing designated renewable energy as a strategic industry last year, and invested 34.6 billion U.S. dollars, twice as much as the U.S.Despite the global financial crisis, the renewable energy industry knows no recession. Renewable energy sources accounted for 5.8 percent of the world’s electricity generation last year, or 4,700 gigawatts, and 40 percent of it was generated from wind. The core technology of wind energy is turbines. The wind turbine market in China last year was worth 23 trillion won (19.9 billion dollars), outpacing world No. 2 U.S. China supplies half of the wind turbines used by Germany, the first in the world to develop them. China is also closely chasing leaders in the photovoltaic market, which is nicknamed the “second semiconductor.” China has four of the world’s top 10 photovoltaic companies, including No. 2 Suntech. Though the Samsung and LG groups of Korea have announced their entry into the photovoltaic market, their decision seems late compared with China’s.China’s rapid growth in renewable energy is largely due to the size of its huge domestic market and aggressive government support

May 18, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, renewable | climate change, renewable energy, renewables, solar, wind