China plans to increase its wind energy

BEIJING, June 11 (UPI) -- China plans to triple its wind power capacity over the next two years.

A senior policy development official said the plan is part of a more general goal of increasing the share of renewable energy in the country's energy mix and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

China's total wind power capacity now stands at 6,000 megawatts, but by the end of 2008 it could be as high as 10,000 megawatts. And by 2010, the central government will have boosted wind power production to 20,000 megawatts, announced Song Yanqin, deputy director of the research management and international collaboration division of China's Energy Research Institute.

The institute is part of the Beijing-based National Development and Report Commission, the agency tasked with implementing energy conservation and emissions reduction programs.

China's rapidly expanding economy has made it a major energy consumer, and right now China still depends primarily on coal. The cheap and abundant energy resource emits lots of carbon dioxide, the cause of China's many polluted cities.

Renewable energy only accounts for about a quarter of China's total installed capacity. but the government hopes that by 2010 wind, hydro and solar energy will account for 10 percent of total consumption.