China invests in solar, wind, hydro and natural gas for energy but will still be mainly reliant on coal

China will plow 2.5 trillion yuan ($361 billion) into renewable power (which includes hydro, tidal, geothermal as well as wind and solar generation by 2020.

1 trillion yuan for solar power as the country seeks to boost solar capacity by five times
700 billion yuan for wind farms
500 billion yuan for hydro power
300 billion yuan tidal and geothermal

China’s investment in renewables sources of electric power in 2015 reached a world record of $110.5 billion – mostly going on wind farms, solar farms and hydro dams (including smaller hydro facilities, not just giant dams)

According to China’s five year energy plan, by 2020,
* hydropower installed capacity will reach 380 million kilowatts (including 40 million kilowatts of pumped storage power stations)
* installed capacity of wind power will reach 210 million kilowatts.
* Solar Installed capacity of more than 110 million kilowatts,
* biomass power generation installed capacity of 15 million kilowatts,
* the total utilization of geothermal heating to 42 million tons of standard coal development goals.

These targets add up to a total of 580 million tons of standard coal by 2020, plus nuclear power, which basically ensures the completion of the 15% non-fossil energy development target for 2020, To achieve non-fossil energy accounts for 20% of the primary energy consumption target to lay a solid foundation.

What China built in 2015

China’s investment of $110 billion accounts for no less than 33% of the global green investment of $329 billion in 2015 – itself a world record total. China’s investment matches the combined total of the next two industrial powers, namely the US ($56 billion) and the EU ($58.5 billion).

In 2015, China invested 139.6 billion yuan (around US$21 billion) in new coal-fired power stations.

In 2015 China’s investment in hydro amounted to 78.2 billion yuan (or US$11.7 billion) and in nuclear power investment was 56 billion yuan (or US$8.4 billion).

Renewables (incluging hydr) will still only account for just 15% of overall energy consumption by 2020, equivalent to 580m tonnes of coal.

More than half of the nation’s installed power capacity will still be fueled by coal over the same period.

China had aimed to boost natural gas output by 13.26% in 2016 and had set a lower production target for crude oil in a bid to raise the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix to 6.3%. The targets had been set to meet the government’s goal of raising domestic natural gas consumption to 6.3% of total energy consumption of 4.34 billion mt of standard coal equivalent in 2016.

China plans to boost natural gas to 10% of the energy mix by 2020