China to up renewable energy investment

China is drafting a stimulus package to more than double the nation's 2020 output of alternative energy from targets set in 2007, said an industry official.

The plan to boost investments in the production of fuel from sources including hydro, wind and solar will be announced this year, Shi Dinghuan, the chief director of China Renewable Energy Society, said yesterday at a conference in Shanghai.

China has said it plans to invest 2 trillion yuan in its alternative energy industry from 2006 through 2020 as the world's second-biggest energy consumer looks to replace usage of coal and oil with cleaner-burning fuels. The Asian nation could pass Europe, Japan and the US to become the world's biggest renewable energy consumer by 2010, according to Washington-based researcher WorldWatch Institute.