However, the nuclear leaks in Japan following the destructive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami have sounded an alarm for the industry and China will need to tighten the safety management and monitoring of its growing nuclear power sector.

China should also try to popularize the development and utilization of solar and thermal power. The country is now the world leader in solar and thermal power technologies and in their development scale. Solar and thermal power are also technologies in which China owns intellectual property rights.

However, the low industrial concentration degree, together with the lack of quality guarantees and after-sale services, has seriously affected these sectors' steady and healthy development. This demands increased support to promote their concentrated development. China should rectify and standardize the solar-heater market and encourage the consolidation of the industry in a bid to improve both the technology and the product quality. Also more measures should be taken to make solar power technologies a safe, stable and reliable energy for architecture.

More active efforts are also required to stabilize the country's land-based wind power generation and further develop offshore wind power. To facilitate the wind power strategy laid out in the country's 12th Five-Year Plan, China should step up the creation of industrial standards for this sector to standardize the manufacturing of domestic air-blowers and improve their quality.

Besides, effective measures should be taken to boost the development of the domestic photovoltaic (PV) power generation market. China's PV power volumes have ranked No 1 in the world for consecutive three years and the industry now serves as one of the country's new strategic industries that can sharpen its international competitiveness.

However, the long-standing slow consumption demand in the domestic market has slowed its further development. To develop from being a producer to being a big consumer, China not only needs to strengthen the construction of domestic intelligent power grids, it also needs to learn from the experiences of Japan, Germany and the US in this area.

China should also push forward the development of its biomass and geothermal power industries and try to develop and popularize the use of electricity-fuelled vehicles and their technologies.

The authors are with the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page8)