Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission Zhang Guobao said recently China has planned to have 180 million kilowatts of installed hydropower capacity by 2010, which will account for 25 percent of the total installed power capacity.

By 2020, Zhang said, the installed capacity of hydropower will reach 300 million kilowatts and that will be 30 percent of the total power generation. By then, China will catch up with developed countries in the development of water resources.

Coal supplies account for two-thirds of China's primary energy consumption. Zhang warned that this energy mix relying too much on coal has caused severe environment problems and cannot sustain. The fossil energy resource per capita is not rich in China. Oil and gas resources which have been discovered can hardly satisfy the rising demand.

In this case, hydropower shows greater potential. 40 percent of the country' s remaining conventional energy resource exploitable is water. Hydropower is renewable, clean and free from emission of greenhouse gases. The use of hydropower contributes to the protection of atmospheric environment, prevention from warming, and materialization of sustainable development.

Given all of this, Zhang concluded that priority to hydropower is the principle that China has to stick to for its energy strategy.

By People's Daily Online