"China's Renewable Energy : Comprehensive Overview of Key Growth Sectors"
Renewable energy in China is targeted for heavy investment and attention before 2020. Along with the growing interest in this sector, challenges and opportunities exist in each focus of industry - hydro power, wind power, solar PV, and biofuels.
Online, January 18, 2013 (Newswire.com) - China's Renewable Energy sector is rapidly growing as the country is the world's highest emitter of greenhouse gasses. It aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020 and increase the use of renewable energies from around 9% of its current total energy mix, to 15% by 2020. According to Solidiance's analysis, there are 3 key drivers behind the continued interest in this sector : China's increasing demand for electricity, the need to reduce its reliance on coal for energy production, and the need to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Installations of hydro power in China continued to rise in the period up to 2011, accounting for 22% of the total global hydro power installed capacity. Hydro power sector is dominated by State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), although foreign firms can still invest regardless of their limited capacity due to the government's firm control before it declines after 2020.
China accounts for 25% of total global installed wind capacity. As the government regulations and requirements increase, the overheated market begins to consolidate and power grid capabilities take time to catch up to meet the unharnessed production output of current installed capacity. Moreover, key domestic players are taking further steps onto the world stage.
China is currently the world's fastest growing solar PV market - it targets 21 GW and 50 GW of installed capacity by 2015 and 2020 respectively. However, due to the industries rapid growth, the country now faces overcapacity of solar PV manufacturers and continues to define , the industry is overcrowded in which the strong firms suffer from problems of overcapacity, troublesome technological development processes and an international slowdown. Meanwhile, biomass and biofuels' growth is retained as the sectors are still at the early stages of development and currently being investigated for future potential.
"The entire planet is falling victim to the world's depleting energy sources, and China stands to be a leader in defining implementable solutions as opposed to being a follower," explains Pilar Dieter, Principal for Solidiance in Shanghai. "As China's production, consumption and overall GDP growth rates rise, the entire country will have no choice but to utilize alternative energy sources. Continuous improvement to make sustainable renewable energy sources available will be evident in the short and long term,"
The above four key points of the sector - hydro power, wind power, solar PV and biofuels were examined in Solidiance's most recent white paper, China's Renewable Energy. It provides a snapshot of the renewable energy market in China, the challenges and opportunities faced by the industry. The white paper can be downloaded for free on :
http://www.solidiance.com/whitepaper/china-renewable.pdf
