China Wind, Hydropower and Nuclear Power New, Now and til 2020 and Japan Nuclear Power

(H/T David Walters at DailyKos for some of the pointers to links

1. Organizers of the 3rd China (Shanghai) International Wind Energy Exhibition and Symposium 2009 forecast installed capacity in China’s wind power sector will grow 64 percent this year to 20 million kilowatts (20 Gigawatts). It appears that China is well on track to 100 Gigawatts or more of wind power by 2020.

2. Beijing aims to increase hydropower capacity to 300 gigawatts by 2020, nearly triple the level in 2007. (original source South China Morning Power)

Tehran Times also reports the 300 Gigawatt hydro power for 2020 target for China.

3. China’s energy administration wants to increase nuclear capacity to 75,000 megawatts, up from the 40,000 it had called for in a plan put forward in 2007, the Shanghai Securities News said.

The revised plan will soon be submitted to the State Council, the cabinet, for approval, Cao Shudong, a senior official with the National Energy Administration, told the paper.

The 75,000 megawatt plan was 5,000 megawatts more than previously reported.

China’s Overall Energy Picture From 2007 to 2020

In 2006/7 the projection was that China would have about 35% power from non-fossil fuel sources in 2020. 270GW Hydro, 40GW nuclear, 123GW from renewable if targets are reached. 42% of power would be from non-coal sources if natural gas usage is increased as projected. CapGemini projects that China will have 1230GW of electrical power by 2020. Up from about 600GW in 2006.

At the end of 2007, the total installed capacity was 713.29 GW,annual generation of electricity was 3255.9 TWh.

In 2008, China added 90 million kilowatts of power generation capacity, including 20.1 million kilowatts of hydropower capacity, 65.75 million kilowatts of coal-fired capacity and 4.66 million kilowatts of wind power capacity, according to the CEC report. In 2008, China approved the construction of 14 nuclear power generation turbines with a total capacity of 15.12 million kilowatts. China added 4.66 million kilowatts of wind power generation capacity.

At the end of 2008, the total installed capacity was about 792.5 GW and consumed 3.4 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity, up 5.23 percent. However, the growth rate was 9.57 percentage points lower from that in 2007. China’s installed power generating capacity is likely to increase to a record 860 gigawatts by the end of 2009, forecasts from the China Electricity Council showed.

The new 2020 targets are 300 GW Hydro, 75GW nuclear, 150GW from renewable if targets are reached. 46% of power would be from non-coal sources if natural gas usage is increased as projected.

The government’s official survey data show the country could theoretically generate 694 GW from hydro sources, of which about 541 GW is technically feasible and 401 GW is economically feasible.

4. Japan is planning to complete 13 new nuclear reactors from 2014 to 2020. Nine reactors are about 1.37 GW and four are about 1.54 GW.

5. Southern Nuclear has given notice to its main contractors to proceed towards two new reactors at Vogtle. They are starting to break ground and begin preparations. Full construction scheduled to start mid-2011 for these two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors that would each produce 1105 MWe.

6. The Oyster Creek nuclear reactor licences were renewed to 2029.

FURTHER READING
The list of current reactors under construction or being planned around the world.