About the Author

Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

See All Posts by This Author

China Plans 10-fold Nuke Power Increase

July 5th, 2009 • Richard Cochrane
Email This Post Email This Post - Print This Post Print This Post -

nuke-plantChina that generates almost all of its electricity from coal, and uses increasing amount of oil for transportation and petrochecmicals appears to be setting out on a new course.. China is planning for an installed nuclear power capacity of 86 gigawatts (gW) by 2020, up nearly 10-fold from the 9 gW capacity it had by the end of last year reports Bejing News.

The goal is part of an alternative energy development roadmap covering 2009-20, seeks to have at least 12 gW of installed nuclear power capacity by 2011. France produces most of it electricity from nuclear plants - the U. S. produces very little. Clearly someone is wrong on electricity roudction.

The plan “will call for the government to accelerate nuclear power development in coastal provinces and autonomous regions, namely Liaoning, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hainan,” the sources said.

In order to achieve the goal, the government will also set up a “reasonable number of nuclear power plants in inland provinces in Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan and Hubei”, they said.

The target, which the people said had still not been finalized, was substantially bigger than earlier goals.

China, the world’s second-largest power market, now has 11 working nuclear reactors, producing 9.1 gW as of the end of last year.

China is now adding more than 24 reactors, which includes five plants scheduled to start construction this year.

According to the draft alternative energy development stimulus plan, the government is also planning to have 150 gW of installed wind power capacity by 2020, of which 30 gW will come from offshore wind farms, the people said.

Installed wind power capacity should reach 35 gW by the end of 2011, of which 5 gW will come from offshore wind farms, the China Daily says of the draft plan.

China, which is now the fourth largest wind power producer in the world, had 12.17 gW in installed capacity as of the end of last year.

It plans to build seven huge wind farms with a minimum capacity of 10 gW each by 2020, Shi Pengfei, vice-president of Chinese Wind Energy Association, said earlier this week.

The seven bases, once completed, will have a combined capacity of around 120 gW, according to Shi.

Construction of these bases, which is spread across six provinces, would require an investment of around 1 trillion yuan, the official said.

Post a Response

You must be logged in to post a comment.