China, the world's second-largest oil user, plans to step up efforts to tap offshore wind energy to meet demand from the country's eastern coast, China Mining reported.
A lack of experience in installation and high costs have constrained its development in China for now, Wang Jun, director of renewable energy at the National Energy Administration, said on Jun 7 at a conference in Shanghai.
China, the world's biggest polluter, wants at least 15 percent of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020 as it seeks to reduce reliance on coal and oil. The nation has enough wind-energy potential to generate seven times its current power consumption, Michael McElroy, a researcher at Harvard University, said in a report in September last year.
Norway and China are keen to cooperate on wind power, said Tormod Endresen, Norwegian Consul-General in China's southern coastal city of Guangzhou.
China's offshore wind-power capacity may reach 22.8 gigawatts in 2020, Wang Minhao, vice president of the government-run Hydropower Planning Research Institute, said at the conference, citing preliminary plans by local governments.
China National Offshore Oil Corp., the country's third- biggest oil company, has completed the nation's first offshore wind power plant, according to a government statement in November 2007. The 1.5-megawatt wind power plant is located in northeast China's Bohai bay, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said then.
China invested $34.5 billion in low-carbon energy technologies in 2009, about double the amount by the U.S., according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It also overtook Germany as the second-leading wind-power nation, the Global Wind Energy Council said in April.
