China to raise hydropower capacity by 75% by 2020

China will aim to raise its hydropower generating capacity by three quarters to 300 gigawatts (GW) by 2020, China’s energy chief said in remarks published in an official publication.

China boasts the world’s largest hydropower generating capacity of 170 GW, or 20 percent of its total.

The world’s second-largest energy user hopes to increase wind power capacity to around 20 GW by next year from the current 12 GW, Zhang Guobao, the head of National Energy Administration, wrote in Qiushi magazine.

The country aims to boost its power supply from renewable energy sources, excluding hydropower, to more than 6 percent by 2020 from 1.5 percent currently.

China, depending on coal-fired power plants for nearly 80 percent of power supply, has been unsuccessful in lowering its reliance on coal in recent years due to comparatively cheaper development costs.

But it has laid out a series of measures to help develop more clean and renewable energy projects. China intends to raise power production from nuclear power plants to over 5 percent by 2020 from the current 1.3 percent.

(Source: Reuters)

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