Economy

Weather shines brightly on future green energy

By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-04 06:54

BEIJING: China's meteorologists are not only forecasting sunshine and rain, they are also reading weather patterns to determine the best locations for establishing wind-based power plants.

The China Meteorological Administration is analyzing data on wind speed and sunshine from across the country.

"The meteorological sector has been entrusted with the task of providing all-round meteorological services in the country's pursuit of a green economy," Zheng Guoguang, the administration's director, told China Daily. "We're monitoring and assessing wind and sunlight that could be developed for the purpose of clean energy."

Zheng's team receives about 400 million pieces of data every day from 400 towers that measure wind speed, each rising 70 to 120 meters from the ground. The data will ultimately be used to tell decision-makers the best location for a wind-based power plant.

Zheng said a census on the development of wind resources is expected to be finished this year. Most of the current wind monitoring facilities are in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, as well as Hebei and Liaoning provinces.

He did not specify a timetable for a solar resources survey.

"China has bountiful wind power potential. Theoretically, if all of the country's wind resources could be exploited, the annual power obtainable would be tantamount to that generated by 68 Three Gorges Dams, the world's largest hydropower project," said Luo Yong, chief of the National Climate Center.

The center said China also has abundant reserves of solar energy. Southwest China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau receives some of the longest days of sunshine in the world.

As the country moves toward a low-carbon economy, authorities have asked the meteorological administration to step up research of so-called "climatic resources", which have not been given proper attention for years, according to Zheng.

"So we are now busily engaged in conducting national censuses of wind and solar resources, to facilitate the construction of big wind farms and solar power plants," Zheng said.

At the Copenhagen climate change summit, China promised to reduce carbon dioxide emission intensity per unit of GDP by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 against 2005 levels, and to increase the use of non-fossil fuel energy in the country's total primary energy mix to 15 percent by 2020.

In addition to hydropower and nuclear power, solar and wind generated electricity is expected to contribute 3 percent to the non-fossil energy mix, said Zhang Guobao, director of the National Energy Administration.