Energy

China Q1 energy use per unit of GDP rises

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-07 13:49

China used 3.2 percent more energy per unit of gross domestic product in the first quarter, adding to pressure to cut consumption for the rest of 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao said.

"Rapid growth" in industries including power generation, steel, nonferrous metals, construction materials, petroleum and chemicals increased China's consumption of energy, Wen said in a statement published on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's website Thursday.

China cut energy use per unit of GDP by 14.38 percent between 2006 and 2009, and plans to reduce consumption by 20 percent in the five years to 2010. The economy expanded 11.9 percent in the first quarter, the fastest pace in almost three years, boosting consumption of electricity, oil and coal.

The first-quarter growth in energy use "greatly increases the pressure on the last three quarters," Wen said. The government wants industries including steel, cement and coal to reduce overcapacity and cut pollution, the State Council, or Cabinet, said Wednesday.

China aims to cut carbon dioxide output per unit of GDP by at least 40 percent by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.

To help lower emissions, China plans to build a wind-power base with a capacity exceeding 10 gigawatts in Jiuquan in Gansu province by 2020, the State Council said in a statement posted on the government's website Thursday. A solar farm with a capacity of more than 1 gigawatt may be completed in Dunhuang in the western province by then, according to the statement.

China may also build nuclear power reactors in Gansu "when the time is right," to meet rising demand for clean energy, the Council said. Power networks in the province will be expanded to boost transmission, it said.

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, the nation's second- largest builder of atomic reactors, said yesterday it's planning to build an 8 billion-yuan ($1.2 billion) wind farm in the southwestern province of Yunnan.