07-09-04
China's voracious demand for electricity will result in it investing vast
amounts in renewables, nuclear and LNG supplies, according to a senior minister. State development and reform vice-minister Zhang Guobao told the 19th World
Energy Congress in Sydney that electricity demand in his country had risen a
phenomenal 16 % in past 20 months. In Guangdong province, where Australia has
contracted to supply $ 25 bn worth of North West Shelf LNG, demand had soared 25
% in the same period, he said.
In the past year, 37 mmkW of new electricity generation had been
commissioned. The country would continue to use large volumes of coal for
electricity generation but domestic supplies could not meet China's needs.
Mr Zhang said that in China's coastal provinces there would be a rapid move
towards LNG. He said natural gas would account for about 4 % of China's energy
requirements by the end of next decade.
Mr Zhang also forecast that renewables -- mainly small scale hydro, wind
power and solar plants -- would contributeup to 7 % of China's electricity by
2020. The Chinese vice-minister said the prospects for the energy sector were so
enormous that China could not undertake an expansion program without
international co-operation and investment. There were great prospects for
foreign companies and China was looking for foreign investment to the mutual
benefit of companies and the country.
Mr Zhang said the price surge towards $ 50 a barrel last month was caused by
"hot" money in the oil trade, not by over-heated Chinese demand.
Source: Advertiser NewspapersChina will have to invest vast amounts in alternative energy
The forecast has huge implications for Australia's natural gas and uranium
industries. Reports from China say that in the first two months of this year,
electricity generation jumped 22 % on last year to 385 mm kW while the country
had plans to build 130 mm kW of new capacity.
"The shortage of power is attracting great attention in the Chinese
economy," Mr Zhang said. Many provinces had had electricity shortages and
the country had restructured its rural electricity grids.
Mr Zhang said nuclear power now provided only about 1.8 % of China's power
generation requirements, but by 2020 this was expected to increase to about 4 %.
That meant that China had to build 40,000 MW of nuclear power within 16 years.
Australia is one of the world's largest suppliers of uranium, while the North
West Shelf project in 2002 won the first LNG supply contract to China, a move
which Australian officials believe will allow Australia to win further contracts
as the LNG market develops in China.
He strongly rejected Western analysis that maintains that high international oil
prices are a result of China's rapidly increasing demand for fuel.
He told about 2000 conference delegates that Chinese consumption of oil was
still being met by domestic production but conceded imports were increasing