Role of coal set for reduction to combat pollution
The nation has vowed to boost the use of clean energy in the next few years, and it has set a target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP - a measure known as energy intensity - by more than 15 percent by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for the sector, which was released Thursday.
Annual energy consumption is expected to be controlled under 5 billion tons of standard coal equivalent by 2020. Energy consumption is targeted to grow at 2.5 percent on average each year over 2016-20, 1.1 percentage points slower than in 2011-15, according to the plan, jointly released by the National Energy Administration (NEA) and the National Development and Reform Commission.
In 2016, total energy consumption is estimated to have risen 1.4 percent to some 4.36 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, with non-fossil energy accounting for some 13.3 percent, according to a post on the website of the NEA on December 27.
"The target [of reducing energy intensity by 15 percent by 2020] is achievable considering the current growth rate in energy consumption," Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times Thursday.
However, Lin noted that it would be harder to reach the target if the growth rate in energy consumption rebounded above 3 percent.
The energy structure is also expected to be improved. During the 2016-20 period, non-fossil sources are targeted to account for more than 15 percent of the nation's total energy consumption, with natural gas accounting for 10 percent. The proportion of coal will be controlled under 58 percent.
Clean and low-carbon energy will account for most of the newly added energy supplies during the 2016-20 period. Total investment in renewable energy will be about 2.5 trillion yuan ($363.68 billion) during the 2016-20 period, according to the NEA.
Around 58 percent of new wind power capacity and 56 percent of new solar capacity will be located in central and eastern China, according to the plan.
Lin said that encouraging the use of clean energy is crucial considering the problem of air pollution, but it won't be easy to achieve significant development in central and eastern China, as these regions are not very rich in wind and solar resources.
Coal will remain the major energy source for the nation for a very long time. However, the country has a glut in coal supply, so further efforts are needed to weed out obsolete capacity in the sector, the plan said.
Some 800 million tons of obsolete coal production capacity is expected to be eliminated each year during 2016-20, and 500 million tons of advanced capacity will be added each year, according to a five-year plan for the coal industry released by the NEA on December 30.
