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China's Solar and Wind Power Sectors Predicted to Gain Investments Worth $789 Billion by 2030

| Apr 15, 2017 08:53 AM EDT

China is intensifying its efforts to be a world leader in terms of producing solar and wind energy.

According to a research report recently published by environmental group Greenpeace, China's wind and solar sectors could gain as much as $780 billion by 2030, Reuters said in an article.

This prediction comes as the Chinese government aims to meet its renewable energy targets. By the end of next decade, the country eyes to increase its non-fossil fuel energy by at least 20 percent of the total consumption.

The report noted that in order to achieve this, the world's second largest economy would have to raise its solar and wind power's share in primary energy consumption to 17 percent by 2030. This figure amounts to a four-percent increase from 2015's statistic.

Should the target be reached, China's solar and wind power could decrease fossil fuel consumption by around 300 million tons of standard coal. This is equivalent to France's 2015 primary energy consumption.

For the five-year-plan covering 2016 to 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) targets to increase total wind generation capacity to over 210 gigawatts (GW) in 2020 from 129 GW in 2015.

Meanwhile, the NDRC has set a 110 GW target for its solar power generation capacity over the same period.

According to NDRC estimates, its five-year plans on solar, wind and other renewables demand an investment worth 2.5 trillion yuan.

Nonetheless, the commission noted that China's electricity distribution system is still not flexible enough to handle renewable power. It remarked that various technological improvements are still needed to optimally connect solar and wind power to the grid.

China's Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute has previously reported that around 49.7 billion kilowatt-hours of wind power did not make it to the grid last year.

The Greenpeace report involved researchers from the NDRC's Energy Research Institute, Tsinghua University and the China Wind Energy Association. The findings initially gathered were submitted before several independent experts.

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