Beijing will explore new energy resources

Dec 1, 2000 - Xinhau

Beijing is expected to improve its energy consumption structure by exploring new energy resources such as geothermal power, solar energy, bio-energy and wind power to reduce the use of traditional energy resource like coal, gas and oil.

The exploration of new energy resources will also benefit Beijing's goal to win the bid for 2008 Olympic Games, said Sinoprojects.com, the leading website on investment projects in China.

The consumption of the traditional energy sources has resulted in huge amount of pollutant discharge into the city's air whereas the upgrading of the city's energy consumption structure will improve the air quality of Beijing, Sinoprojects quoted an analysis of current resource reserve by the State Development Planning Commission.

According to the analysis, China's coal, oil, gas and hydropower reserve will be running out within one century.

However, it noted, Beijing boasts potential renewable resources reserves, which will help the city use more clean energy resources while reduce the consumption of traditional energy resources.

Beijing has 150 geothermal wells, capable of producing 8.8 million cubic meters of hot water annually. About 400,000 cubic meters of the resource can be sued for heating.

If Beijing accelerates the exploration of its geothermal resource, the new power will solve heating problem for about 20-30 million square meters of area, equivalent to the consumption of 3 million tons of coal.

The city also claims abundant solar energy resource. The average annual sunlight-covering time of the city is about 2,594 hours. The solar energy resource could be widely introduced to electricity generating and heating.

Beijing is capable of becoming the world's largest solar energy consumption city.

The city's agriculture sector produces 5.2 million tons of crop stems annually, 4.17 million tons of which capable of being generated into energy.

But only 1.56 million tons of the total resources are generated into energy. Another major bio-energy choice is the city's rubbish, which amounts to 4.7 million tons annually. If half of the rubbish are burned to generate electricity, about 340,000 tons of coal will be saved.

The last choice for new energy resource falls to wind power. Yanqing County in northwestern suburbs of Beijing is capable of greatly tapping he wind power. By installing 100,000-kw electricity generating units, the annual electricity generating capacity is to reach 175 million kwh.

The new resources will help provide a new energy supply equivalent to 6.48 million tons of coal and the discharge of pollutants will drop 640, 000 tons.

According to the analysis of the commission, Beijing needs a construction fund about 800 million yuan to tap the potential new resources.