Compiled by Caijing staff

(Caijing.com.cn) China's central government will soon release a plan to support the country's renewable energy industry, the Shanghai Securities News reported on May 4, citing a senior official.

"It will be a blueprint for driving the new energy industry's development in China," Shi Dinghuan, a State Council advisor and head of the Chinese Renewable Energy Association, told the newspaper.

Shi made the remarks at the launch of EI DuPont de Nemours & Co.'s photovoltaic technology research center in Shanghai.

Wang Mengjie, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the National Development and Reform Commission has completed a draft of the plan following discussions by ministers in April.

Wang said the new plan would raise existing targets for renewable energy development to a much higher level.

Under the long-term industry plan released in 2007, the government vowed to speed up construction of renewable energy power plants and, by 2020, to reach installed electricity generating capacity of 300 million kilowatts from hydropower, 30 million kilowatts from wind power, 30 million kilowatts from biomass power and 1.8 million kilowatts from solar power.

The latest industry plan will raise those targets, the newspaper reported, citing wind power expert Shi Pengfei. The 30 million kilowatt target for wind power, for example, will be raised to 100 or 150 million kilowatts because the original goal is likely to be reached by 2011, Shi said.

China generates about 80 percent of its power from coal. In 2008, renewable energy use was equivalent to about 250 million tons of standard coal, or 9 percent of the total energy consumed.