Environmental issues of China[环境问题]

[Adams3]

WTF? 4,3 trillion yuan!?!?

[Red flag's egg]

forestry coverage rate rising from 8.6 percent to 18.2 percent
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what's the world forestry coverage rate? 18.2% is still too low IMO

[big-dog]

Originally Posted by Red flag's egg

forestry coverage rate rising from 8.6 percent to 18.2 percent
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what's the world forestry coverage rate? 18.2% is still too low IMO

18.2% is great achievement considering China's population and low urbanization rate.

[Caliguy2005]

China amazes me in what they are able to accomplish.

[wigo]

http://2008.sohu.com/20070911/n252074384.shtml



Henan, China.

　　“近年来，中国太阳能热产业发展迅速，已经成为世界上最大的太阳能热利用市场。”全国政协委员、中国标准化协会理事长李忠海近日表示。

　　随着《可再生能源法》的正式实施，我国太阳能产业发展得空前火爆，尤其是太阳能热利用产业，已拥有几百亿元的市场规模和几十万个就业岗位。

　　应用广泛

　　家住湖北丹江口三官殿办事处蔡湾村的段久斌，近来特别开心，逢人便会提起家里新安装的太阳能热水器：“我刚翻新了房子，改建了厨房，又花3000多块钱买台太阳能，一切都齐了。

安上当晚就有热水，现在干完活回来就能马上洗个热水澡，真是太好了！”

　　三管殿5009户人家中，像段久斌这样安装太阳能的达1830多户。蔡湾村在村民活动的公共场所还安装了16盏自动太阳能路灯，不用牵电线不用人开关，还环保节能。村民们觉得，使用太阳能属于一次性投入、长期回报，既省力又省钱。

　　我国是世界最大的太阳能光热市场，也是世界最大的太阳能集热器制造中心。2006年集热器推广面积约9000多万平方米，占世界总量的76%。迄今，太阳能集热器共覆盖4000万家庭约1.5亿人口，是“世界太阳能热水器总量和太阳能节能环保第一大国”。中国太阳能热利用模式已成为世界发展可再生能源的典范。

　　适合国情

　　发展太阳能适合中国国情。常规用热需要消耗巨额电、油、气、煤，尤以电转热最不经济，效率只有不到50%，而且对环境造成很大的污染。而太阳能热利用产业最接近人民群众的生产生活。未来5—10年，太阳能热利用产业可替代能源总量，将占社会总能耗的1/3以上。太阳能热利用替代常规用热方式，最适合中国国情，最易被国民接受。

　　目前，太阳能热利用产业累计替代常规能源达2亿吨标准煤，碳减排能力达2亿吨。

　　技术自主

　　除了太阳能路灯、热水器，我国还有很多太阳能技术应用。2008年奥运会，北京将成为我国在太阳能应用方面的展示窗口，“新奥运”将充分体现“环保奥运、节能奥运”的新概念，计划奥运会场馆周围80%至90%的路灯将利用太阳能光伏发电技术；采用全玻璃真空太阳能集热技术，供应奥运会90%的洗浴热水。

　　李忠海称，经过十余年的创新发展，与其他产业相比，中国太阳能光热利用产业自有技术含量达90%以上，无论在规模、数量、市场成熟度方面以及开创核心技术、打造民族品牌方面，均处于世界领先水平。以技术为例，如皇明太阳能集团最新研制的“太阳芯”——高温镀膜集热钢管，热量吸收率高达94%，发射率只有约10%，在500℃以上的高温环境下仍能正常工作，是菲涅尔式太阳能热发电装置的核心部件，产品已经出口到美国、德国、西班牙、澳大利亚等地，目前世界上只有我国掌握这项关键技术。另外我国在太阳能高温发电集成系统、采暖制冷、海水淡化、建筑节能、技术设备检测等方面，也都拥有国际领先的自主技术。 (来源：人民日报海外版)

Solar heaters have covered 150 millions people in China, which is the world's largest solar energy market. China's per capita solar energy usuage has far surpassed many developed countries, such as US.

[big-dog]

great news, solar technology is esp. suitable for China's massive rural areas.

[kelvinyang]

Originally Posted by wigo

常规用热需要消耗巨额电、油、气、煤，尤以电转热最不经济，效率只有不到50%

Stupid media reporter. Electricity to heat conversion efficiecy is near 100%.

China is leading in the solar-energy to heat conversion application. But not in the solar energy to electricity conversion. In US, it is common now that lighting in backyards is supplied by solar cell. I just bought one of such lighting lamps.

[Huhu]

Wanted a thread to post some articles related to environmental issues, don't know if one already exists (unless it's buried far back somewhere).

Though water is drying up, a Chinese metropolis booms
By Jim Yardley
Published: September 27, 2007

SHIJIAZHUANG, China: Hundreds of feet below ground, this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running out of water. The water table is sinking fast. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater.

Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year. Population is rising. One new upscale housing development is advertising waterfront property on lakes filled with pumped groundwater. Another half-built complex, the Arc de Royal, is rising above one of the lowest points in the city's water table.

"People who are buying apartments aren't thinking about whether there will be water in the future," said Zhang Zhongmin, who has tried for the past 20 years to raise public awareness about the city's dire water situation.

For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China's galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China - even as demand keeps rising everywhere.

China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply.

One example is grain. The Communist Party, leery of depending on imports to feed the country, has long insisted on grain self-sufficiency. But growing so much grain consumes huge amounts of underground water in the North China Plain, which produces half the country's wheat. Some scientists say farming in the rapidly urbanizing region should be restricted to protect endangered aquifers. Yet doing so could threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and cause a spike in international grain prices.

For the Communist Party, the immediate challenge is the prosaic task of forcing the world's most dynamic economy to conserve and protect clean water. Water pollution is so widespread that regulators say a major incident occurs every other day. Municipal and industrial dumping has left broad sections of many rivers "unfit for human contact."

Cities like Beijing and Tianjin have shown progress on water conservation, but China's economy continues to emphasize growth. Industry in China uses 3 to 10 times more water, depending on the product, than industries in developed nations.

"We have to now focus on conservation," said Ma Jun, a prominent environmentalist and author of "China's Water Crisis." "We don't have much extra water resources. We have the same resources and much bigger pressures from growth."

In the past, the Communist Party has reflexively turned to engineering projects to address water problems, and now it is reaching back to one of Mao's unrealized schemes: the $62 billion South-to-North Water Transfer Project to funnel 45 billion cubic meters, or 12 trillion gallons, northward every year along three routes from the Yangtze River basin, where water is more abundant. The project, if fully built, would be completed in 2050. The eastern and central lines are already under construction; the western line, the most controversial because of environmental concerns, remains in the planning stages.

The North China Plain undoubtedly needs any water it can get. An economic powerhouse with more than 200 million residents, the region has limited rainfall and depends on groundwater for 60 percent of its water supply. Other countries have aquifers that are being drained to dangerously low levels, like Yemen, India, Mexico and the United States. But scientists say the aquifers below the North China Plain may be drained within 30 years.

"There's no uncertainty," said Richard Evans, a hydrologist who has worked in China for two decades and has served as a consultant to the World Bank and China's Ministry of Water Resources. "The rate of decline is very clear, very well documented. They will run out of groundwater if the current rate continues."

Outside Shijiazhuang, construction crews are working on the transfer project's central line, which will provide the city with infusions of water on the way to the final destination, Beijing. For many of the engineers and workers, the job carries a patriotic gloss.

Yet while many scientists agree that the project will provide an important influx of water, they also say it will not be a cure-all. No one knows how much clean water the project will deliver; pollution problems are already arising on the eastern line. Cities and industry will be the beneficiaries of the new water, but the impact on farming is limited. Water deficits are expected to remain.

"Many people are asking the question: What can they do?" said Zheng Chunmiao, a leading international groundwater expert. "They just cannot continue with current practices. They have to find a way to bring the problem under control."
An ecological fall

On a drizzly, polluted morning last April, Wang Baosheng steered his Chinese-made sport utility vehicle out of a shopping center on the west side of Beijing for a three-hour southbound commute that became a tour of the water crisis pressing down on the North China Plain.

Wang travels several times a month to Shijiazhuang, where he is chief engineer overseeing construction of five kilometers, or three miles, of the central line of the water transfer project. A light rain splattered the windshield, and Wang recited a Chinese proverb about the preciousness of spring showers for farmers. He also noticed one dead river after another as his SUV glided over dusty, barren riverbeds: the Yongding, the Yishui, the Xia and, finally, the Hutuo.

"You see all these streams with bridges, but there is no water," Wang said.

A century or so ago, the North China Plain was a healthy ecosystem, scientists say. Farmers digging wells could strike water within two and a half meters, or eight feet. Streams and creeks meandered through the region. Swamps, natural springs and wetlands were common.

Today, the region, comparable in size to New Mexico, is parched. Roughly five-sixths of the wetlands have dried up, according to one study. Scientists say that most natural streams or creeks have disappeared. Several rivers that once were navigable are now mostly dust and brush. The largest natural freshwater lake in northern China, Lake Baiyangdian, is steadily contracting and besieged with pollution.

What happened?

The list includes misguided policies, unintended consequences, a population explosion, climate change and, most of all, relentless economic growth. In 1963, a flood paralyzed the region, prompting Mao to construct a flood control system of dams, reservoirs and concrete spillways. Flood control improved but the ecological balance was altered as the dams began choking off rivers that once flowed eastward into the North China Plain.

The new reservoirs gradually became major water suppliers for growing cities like Shijiazhuang. Farmers, the region's biggest water users, began depending almost exclusively on wells. Rainfall steadily declined in what some scientists now believe is a consequence of climate change.

Before, farmers had compensated for the region's limited annual rainfall by planting only three crops every two years. But underground water seemed limitless and government policies pushed for higher production, so farmers began planting a second annual crop, usually winter wheat, which requires a lot of water.

By the 1970s, studies show, the water table was already falling. Then Mao's death and the introduction of market-driven economic reforms spurred a farming renaissance. Production soared, and rural incomes rose. The water table kept falling, further drying out wetlands and rivers.

Around 1900, Shijiazhuang was a collection of farming villages. By 1950, the population had reached 335,000. This year, the city has roughly 2.3 million people with a metropolitan population of nine million.

More people meant more demand for water, and the city now heavily pumps groundwater. The water table is falling more than a meter a year. Today, some city wells must descend 200 meters to get clean water. In the deepest drilling areas, steep downward funnels have formed in the water table that are known as "cones of depression."

Groundwater quality also has worsened. Wastewater, often untreated, is now routinely dumped into rivers and open channels. Zheng, the water specialist, said studies showed that roughly three-quarters of the region's entire aquifer system is now suffering some level of contamination.

"There will be no sustainable development in the future if there is no groundwater supply," said Liu Changming, a leading Chinese hydrology expert and a senior scholar at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Seeking a water miracle

Three decades ago, when Deng Xiaoping shifted China from Maoist ideology and fixated the country on economic growth, a generation of technocrats gradually took power and began rebuilding a country that ideology had almost destroyed. Today, the entire top leadership of the Communist Party - including Hu Jintao, China's president and party chief - were trained as engineers.

Though not members of the political elite, Wang Baosheng, the engineer on the water transfer project, and his colleague Yang Guangjie are of the same background. This spring, at the construction site outside Shijiazhuang, bulldozers clawed at a V-shaped cut in the dirt while teams of workers in blue jumpsuits and orange hard hats smoothed wet concrete over a channel that will be almost as wide as a football field.

Yang, the project manager. compares the transfer project to the damming of the Colorado River in the western United States and the water diversion system devised for Southern California early in the 20th century.

"I've been to the Hoover Dam, and I really admire the people who built that," Yang said. "At the time, they were making a huge contribution to the development of their country."

"Maybe we are like America in the 1920s and 1930s," Yang added. "We're building the country."

China's disadvantage, compared with the United States, is that it has a smaller water supply yet almost five times as many people. China has about 7 percent of the world's water resources and roughly 20 percent of its population. It also has a severe regional water imbalance, with about four-fifths of the water supply in the south.

Mao's vision of borrowing water from the Yangtze for the north had an almost profound simplicity, but engineers and scientists spent decades debating the project before the government approved it, partly out of desperation, in 2002. Today, demand is far greater in the north, and water quality has badly deteriorated in the south. Roughly 41 percent of China's wastewater is now dumped in the Yangtze, raising concerns that siphoning away clean water northward will exacerbate pollution problems in the south.

The upper reaches of the central line are expected to be finished in time to provide water to Beijing for the Olympic Games next year. Evans, the World Bank consultant, called the complete project "essential" but added that success would depend on avoiding waste and efficiently distributing the water.

Liu, the scholar and hydrologist, said that farming would get none of the new water and that cities and industry must quickly improve wastewater treatment. Otherwise, he said, cities will use the new water to dump more polluted wastewater. Currently, Shijiazhuang dumps untreated wastewater into a canal that local farmers use to irrigate fields.

For years, Chinese officials thought irrigation efficiency was the answer for reversing groundwater declines. Eloise Kendy, a hydrology expert with The Nature Conservancy who has studied the North China Plain, said that farmers had made improvements but that the water table had kept sinking. Kendy said the spilled water previously considered "wasted" had actually soaked into the soil and recharged the aquifer. Efficiency erased that recharge. Farmers also used efficiency gains to irrigate more land.

Kendy said scientists had discovered that the water table was dropping because of water lost by evaporation and transpiration from the soil, plants and leaves. The sum of this lost water, combined with low annual rainfall, is not enough to meet demand.

Farmers have no choice. They drill deeper.
What now?

For many people living in the North China Plain, the notion of a water crisis seems distant. No one is crawling across a parched desert in search of an oasis. But every year, the water table keeps dropping. Nationally, groundwater usage has almost doubled since 1970 and now accounts for one-fifth of the country's total water usage, according to the China Geological Survey Bureau.

The Communist Party is fully aware of the problems. A new water pollution law is under consideration that would sharply increase fines against polluters. Different coastal cities are building desalination plants. Multinational waste treatment companies are being recruited to help tackle the enormous wastewater problem.

Many scientists believe that huge gains can still be reaped by better efficiency and conservation. In north China, pilot projects are under way to try to reduce water loss from winter wheat crops. Some cities have raised the price of water to promote conservation, but it remains subsidized in most places. Already, some cities along the route of the transfer project are recoiling because of the planned higher prices. Some say they may just continue pumping.

Tough political choices, though, seem unavoidable. Studies by different scientists have concluded that the rising water demands in the North China Plain make it unfeasible for farmers to continue planting a winter crop. The international ramifications would be significant if China became a bigger and bigger customer on world grain markets. Some analysts have long warned that grain prices could steadily rise, contributing to inflation and making it harder for other developing countries to buy food.

The social implications would also be significant inside China. Near Shijiazhuang, Wang Jingyan's farming village depends on wells that are 200 meters deep. Not planting winter wheat would amount to economic suicide.

"We would lose 60 percent or 70 percent of our income if we didn't plant winter wheat," Wang said. "Everyone here plants winter wheat."

Another water proposal is also radical: huge, rapid urbanization. Scientists say converting farmland into urban areas would save enough water to stop the drop in the water table, if not reverse it, because widespread farming still uses more water than urban areas. Of course, large-scale urbanization, already under way, could worsen air quality; Shijiazhuang's air already ranks among the worst in China because of heavy industrial pollution.

For now, Shijiazhuang's priority, like that of other major Chinese cities, is to grow as quickly as possible. The city's gross domestic product has risen by an average of 10 percent every year since 1980, even as the city's per capita rate of available water is now only one-33rd of the world average.

"We have a water shortage, but we have to develop," said Wang Yongli, a senior engineer with the city's water conservation bureau. "And development is going to be put first."

Wang has spent four decades charting the steady extinction of the North China Plain's aquifer. He said Shijiazhuang had more than 800 illegal wells and resembled Israel in terms of water scarcity. "In Israel, people regard water as more important than life itself," he said. "In Shijiazhuang, it's not that way. People are focused on the economy."

[Huhu]

...........

China raises environmental concerns over Three Gorges Dam
The Associated Press
Published: September 27, 2007

BEIJING: China could face a catastrophe if it fails to quickly stop environmental problems such as flooding and erosion caused by the gigantic Three Gorges Dam, state media said.

The dam, China's showcase engineering triumph and the world's biggest hydropower project, has been relentlessly promoted as a solution for devastating flooding on the Yangtze River and a source of clean power for a nation attempting to wean itself off its heavy reliance on coal.

But a report on the Web site of The People's Daily, the Communist Party's newspaper, on Wednesday said officials at a recent meeting also raised concerns over erosion and landslides on hills around the dam, along with problems caused by unplanned development.

"There are many new and old hidden ecological and environmental dangers concerning the Three Gorges Dam," the report quoted senior officials as saying. "If preventive measures are not taken, the project could lead to a catastrophe."

The official Xinhua news agency said the size of the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam had started to erode the Yangtze's banks in many places, which, "together with frequent fluctuations in water levels, had triggered a series of landslides."

China's leaders have made environmental issues connected with the dam a top priority, The People's Daily quoted Wang Xiaofeng, a senior member of the commission in charge of building the dam, as saying.

"We cannot lower our guard against ecological and environmental problems caused by the Three Gorges project," Wang was quoted as telling a recent seminar in the Yangtze River city of Wuhan.

"We cannot win by achieving economic prosperity at the cost of the environment," Wang said.

Begun in 1993, the $23.6 billion Three Gorges Dam project has steamed ahead with the backing of the Communist leadership despite complaints about its cost, environmental concerns and the forced relocation of 1.4 million residents from areas flooded by its vast reservoir.

The left bank of the dam began generating power in 2005, and turbines on the right side of the dam started sending their first trickle of electricity to the power grid this month. The project is scheduled to be fully operational by 2009.

[Adams3]

This is could turn into an ugly China-bashing thread. Please close it. Yes, there are problems, but it will be dealt with accordingly.

[Huhu]

It's not a China bashing thread and any idiot posts that do so can be deleted.

People shouldn't stick their heads in the sand about this issue since even Xinhua is frequently pointing out the potential disaster that the current pace of development could lead to.

[Facial]

The first article was published on the LA Times.

Quite sad that "development goes first." Without water, you have no life - hence no development.

[Huhu]

Originally from the NY Times I think. This situation is similar to that in certain areas of the United States years ago, only that the problem is much more dire due to the concentrated population on the North China Plain.

[Huhu]

China approves five-year plan for environment protection
2007-09-26 19:59:38
Editor: Jiang Yuxia

BEIJING, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council has approved in principle a five-year environmental protection plan that sets out guidelines, major tasks and measures for the government to tackle pollution.

The plan, approved during an executive meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday, has put "pollution control and prevention" as its focus with the aim of achieving the environmental protection targets set by the government last year.

The government set goals in its five-year plan to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent and major pollutant discharges by 10 percent in the 11th five-year plan period ending 2010.

"China is suffering from increasing conflicts between economic and social development and constraints in resources and energy," the State Council said in a circular.

The tasks laid out included:

-- Accelerating economic restructuring to create an industrial system that will aid resource conservation and environmental protection, along with the control of inappropriate development activities.

"Techniques, facilities and backward production measures that lead to too much waste of resources and serious pollution must be eliminated," the circular said.

-- Improving supervision, management and law enforcement of pollution.

-- Advancing environmental science and technology through innovation to improve environmental protection capability.

-- Enhancing cooperation between government departments and local governments to better resolve trans-regional environmental problems.

-- Reinforcing environment education to enhance the public's awareness of eco-system protection.

"A mechanism should be established to encourage government, enterprises, and non-government forces to invest in pollution control projects," said the circular.

China's environment watchdog said at the beginning of this year that the country failed to reach its pollution control goals last year as the economy grew faster than expected.

Of all the proposals laid out, I think putting the boots to the local governments is the most important. The Environment Ministry may understand what's going on, but until they lay out some serious penalties there won't be much progress at the local level.

[YohIMhER]

i like this thread, everyone has the right to be informed of what's going on in their respective countries, both good news and bad news.
and when no issues are reported about one city/country, then something is really really wrong.
but HUHU, beside articles on chinese environmental issues, can you also post news on what the chinese government is doing try to remedy the situation? thanks in advance.

[Huhu]

The Chinese gov't publishes information about environmental initiatives, but due to the nature of news reporting these days, bad news usually takes the headlines.

China to establish ecological reserve in Dunhuang
2007-08-12 18:13:17
(Source: Xinhua)

Beijing , Aug. 12 - China 's environmental watchdog has called for the establishment of a national ecological reserve in Dunhuang, northwest China 's Gansu Province , to prevent further environmental deterioration there.

An official with the State Environmental Protection Administration(SEPA) made the appeal after news reports uncovered that the ecological environment in Dunhuang continuously deteriorated.

Dunhuang was once an important site on the ancient Silk Road, a 2,000-year-old trade route that linked Asia and Europe, starting in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and ending in Europe after passing through southern and central Asian countries.

In 1987, the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, also known as the Caves of 1,000 Buddhas, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Surrounded by a desert, Dunhuang has an extremely arid climate and a very fragile ecosystem. Global climate change and human activities have made vegetation decrease there.

The official admitted that major rivers in Dunhuang have run dry and lakes are disappearing. Underground water level has dropped sharply and natural disasters such as sandstorm frequently occurred.

The deteriorated ecosystem in Dunhuang has threatened the local cultural relics and natural scenery, the official said.

Besides the natural factors, defects in the administration of Dunhuang also add difficulties to the protection of the ecosystem there, according to the official.

He said that the current administrative system fails to have overall planning for balance among economic development, social development and environmental protection.

The SEPA called for local departments of environmental protection to improve environment impact assessment and take measures to restrict consumption of natural resources.

A national ecological reserve is urgently needed in Dunhuang to protect its civilization and heritage that has a history of more than one thousand years, the official said.

[Huhu]

From China Daily:

Pollution makes cancer the top killer
2007-05-21 10:13:31

May 21 - Air and water pollution combined with widespread use of food additives and pesticides made cancer the top killer in China last year, according to a recent government survey.

Cancer topped the list of the 10 most lethal diseases for urban residents last year, followed by cerebrovascular diseases and heart ailments, according to the survey in 30 cities and 78 counties released by the Ministry of Health.

"The main reason behind the rising number of cancer cases is that pollution of the environment, water and air is getting worse day by day," said Chen Zhizhou, a health expert with the cancer research institute affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

"Many chemical and industrial enterprises are built along rivers so that they can dump the waste into water easily," Chen said. "Excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides also pollute underground water.

"The contaminated water has directly affected soil, crops and food," he added.

Air pollution is a major cause of lung cancers, as harmful granules enter the lungs and cannot be discharged. Large amounts of formaldehyde and its compounds used in house renovations and furniture has been blamed for deterioration in air quality.

In addition, farmers use additives on pigs, poultry and vegetables to make them grow faster.

The survey, the first of its kind in recent years, showed that the death rate from cancer has risen to 19 percent in cities and 23 percent in rural areas.

In rural areas, 92 percent of fatalities were caused by 10 illnesses, the first three being cancer, cerebrovascular diseases and respiratory diseases.

Reports on "cancer villages" have popped up frequently in recent years.

An investigative story by Xinhua last June said a high rate of cancer deaths has become a reality in areas where the environment is heavily polluted.

In Shangba Village of Guangdong Province, for instance, more than 250 people died of cancer from 1987 to 2005; while in Huangmengying Village of Henan Province, more than 114 people died of cancer between 1991 and 2005.

Similar cases were also reported in other provinces, with the usage of heavily-polluted water being he common factor.

[Huhu]

....................

China to enter "wind power era" before 2010, expert says
08:04, September 20, 2007

China will enter an era in which wind power will be fully developed by 2010, an expert said on Wednesday.

He Dexin, president of the Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA), said the gross installed power-generating capacity would reach 5,000 megawatts by the end of 2010, ahead of schedule.

He made the statement at the "Solar World Congress 2007" which opened in Beijing Tuesday with nearly 1,000 experts from more than 60 countries present.

He laid out a road map for the country's wind power development:

-- After 2010, China will independently design and manufacture a wind turbine generator system.

-- The country's wind power-generating capacity will reach 30,000 megawatts before 2020, and will head towards a 50,000-megawatt goal.

-- The cost of wind power will be close to that of traditional power generating methods at the time.

-- The capacity will reach 100,000 megawatts in 2030 when wind power will be extensively applied in various industries.

Statistics from the CWEA show China had 91 wind farms with a total installed capacity of 2,599 megawatts at the end of 2006.

Shi Dinghuan, president of the Chinese Renewable Energy Society, said at the congress on Tuesday that renewable energy may contribute 30 percent of China's total energy supply by 2050.

Source: Xinhua

[YohIMhER]

thanks huhu for posting the them.

[Gaeus]

Why not used China's Three Gorges Dam Reservoir or "The Artificial Yangtze Sea or Yangtze Ocean" as the primary source of fresh drinking water? That, by the way, may provide fresh water for 250 million - 350 million population.

And I guess Desalination Plant (plants that gathers salt water from seas and oceans turns it to fresh water). By the way, UNESCO thought that was the best option for fresh water.