Last Saturday (two days ago), the Chinese top legislative body adopted several amendments and laws, after its scheduled bimonthly session. Among the legislative documents was an amendment to the country's existing renewable energy law, which now requires all utilities to purchase all power generated in the country from renewable energy sources. This is the latest development in the country's regulatory policy to help its renewable energy sector move forward.
According to the legislative body, the State Council has yet to determine the proportion of renewable energy power generation against the overall generating capacity for a certain period. Power utilities that fail to comply with the new law face fines at the level of the amount double that of the economic loss of the renewable energy company that offered produced power. Renewable energy sources included in the amendment are wind, solar, biomass, hydropower, geothermal and ocean (marine) energy.
Even though China is making these changes, and stimulating the development of renewable energy, the fact remains the country is still almost two thirds powered by coal, making China one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters (even the largest according to some). This has been one of the main issues discussed at Cop15, and perhaps one of the biggest issues faced by developing economies in general worldwide – a seemingly impossible compromise with necessary economic growth and environmental protection.
China announced recently it is planning to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by about 40-45% from the levels in 2005. In order to achieve this, the country's has had to revitalize its renewable energy laws to support the new environmental goal.
An additional development spawned by the new legislation, is a special renewable energy development fund to be set up by the Chinese government, which is to support renewable energy research, finance rural clean energy projects, build independent power systems in remote areas and islands, as well as build information networks to support renewable energy. The fund will be governed by the finance, energy and pricing sector of the State Council.
Even though China is a leader in producing electricity from renewable energy sources such as hydropower, wind and solar, the country still faces power transmission difficulties. Much of the generated clean power is simply not available on a national scale due to the lack power grid connections and transmission capabilities. This must be resolved before underdeveloped regions in the northeast of the country, abundant with renewable energy sources, can start exporting power to other regions of the country, and grow the local economy.
One of the proposed solutions for power transmission is the use of smart grids, a technology introduced in the past years in North America and Europe. Technology for this is readily available, especially from companies like GE and Siemens.
[source: Government of China, image: Xinhua]
