China plans more hydro power, more energy productivity, and accelerated delivery of electrical grid and high speed rail

1. China has met its target to cut the amount of energy produced per unit of GDP growth by 20 percent over the 2006-2010 period. Chinese officials are still deliberating on energy intensity targets for the next five years, but Chinese media reports suggested last October that the figure for 2011-2015 could be 17.3 percent. China also aimed to reduce key pollutants like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and chemical oxygen demand by 10 percent over the 2006-2010 period

2. The Chinese government now aims to have 430 gigawatts of -hydropower capacity by 2020, increasing its earlier target of 380GW, the China Securities Journal -reported last month, citing unidentified sources.

“That means each year, the equivalent of one new Three Gorges Dam will be added in China over the next decade,” said Shao Minghui, an analyst at China Post Securities, using the 2020 target of 380GW as a base. “The market is really sizable.”

The 18.2GW Three Gorges Dam, which spans the Yangtze River and is located in Yichang, Hubei Province, is the world’s largest.

A revision of targets in the 12th Five-Year Plan that starts this year calls for China to increase -construction of conventional -hydropower plants by about a third to 83GW and to raise the construction of pumped-storage hydro-capacity by 60 percent to 80GW, the China Securities Journal reported. The -revision is pending approval before the National Development and -Reform Commission.

In pumped-storage hydropower generation, water is pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation by using low-cost, off-peak electric power, and then is released to generate power during periods of peak demand or when electricity prices are higher.

China’s hydropower generating capacity reached 200GW as of August – accounting for more than a fifth of the nation’s total power-generation capacity. The last operating unit to be added was in Yunnan province in China’s southwestern corner.

Shao estimated that the -conventional hydropower sector will need an investment of 900 billion yuan ($136 billion) by 2020, of which 140 billion yuan will be spent on equipment. This may benefit -listed companies such as -hydroelectric works contractor China Gezhouba Group Co and equipment supplier Ningxia Qinglong Pipe Industry Co.

3. State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) said Thursday it will invest 500 billion yuan (75.4 billion U.S. dollars) over the coming 5 years to extend its ultra-high voltage (UHV) electricity transmission system.

The length of the UHV electricity transmission network will reach 40,000 kilometers by the end of 2015. SGCC general manager Liu Zhenya forecast China’s total electricity consumption to top 6.1 trillion kilowatt-hours by the end of 2015.

By 2020, the country’s electricity consumption may double the 2009 figure to hit 7.8 trillion kilowatt-hours, giving rise to significant opportunities for UHV electricity transmission system development, he said.

He expects UHV transmission systems to play a big role in helping China’s cross-regional power transmission capacity top 400 million kilowatts by the end of 2020, about one third of the country’s total electricity power installed capacity.

4. Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun said the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway will be put into operation by the middle of June 2011.

The high-speed link connecting the country’s two most important cities will open ahead of its original schedule, previously set in 2012.

The construction of the 1,318-km railway was started in April 2008 with total investment estimated at 220.9 billion yuan (around 32.5 billion U.S. dollars).

The railway is expected to cut travel time between Beijing, China’s capital in the north, and Shanghai, the country’s economic center in the east, to less than five hours, compared with the current 10-hour rail journey.

On Dec. 3, 2010, a China-made CRH380A train set a new speed record of 486.1 km per hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.

Liu said the combined length of China’s operating high-speed railways had reached 8,358 km by the end of 2010.

Total length of high-speed railways would reach 13,000 km by 2011, and 16,000 km by 2015.

China plans to invest 700 billion yuan for the construction of railways this year, Liu said.

He said the total length of China’s railways had reached 91,000 km by 2010, and the railways would reach 120,000 km in five years.

Summary of high speed rail over 250 kph

The rest of the world has about 10,600 kilometers of high speed rail. China will match the rest of the world’s high speed rail lines this year.

A prior article on high speed rail.

5. India opened a 100 ton nuclear fuel reprocessing facility

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