WB offers loan
to renewable energy project in China
Feb 8, 2006 - Xinhua English Newswire
WB offers loan to renewable energy project in China
BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank has approved an 86.33
million US dollar loan to scale up China's use of renewable energy as
the country's demand for power increases, the bank said Wednesday.
The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved the follow- up
project to the 2005 China Renewable Energy Scale-Up Program Phase 1,
which would develop a large wind farm in the China's Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region and rehabilitate and develop selected small hydropower
projects in Zhejiang Province, the bank said in a statement.
The bank said the overall renewable energy scale-up program aims to
develop the Chinese commercial market for energy suppliers to provide
renewable energy to the electricity grid on a large scale in an
efficient and cost-effective way. Renewable energy sources like wind
power, solar power, and biomass have up to now been produced only in
small-scale, pilot programs, outside the main electricity supply.
Noureddine Berrah, lead energy specialist, said "China's energy
demands and its need to decrease air pollution make large-scale
renewable energy development an important goal."
"The idea behind the program is to increase the commercial, large-
scale use of renewable energy sources like wind, small hydropower, and
solar energy so that they contribute to meeting the fast- growing
electricity demand from homes, farms, and businesses."
As China's gross domestic product quadrupled from 1980 to 2000, its
energy consumption more than doubled to about 1.3 billion tons of coal
equivalent.
Projections for energy consumption indicate that fuel consumption
could double or almost triple by 2020, even if energy efficiency efforts
were increased, the bank said.
The follow-up project to the China Renewable Energy Scale-Up Project
(Phase I) provides investment funds to help demonstrate success in
large-scale renewable energy development by local renewable energy
developers as other local investment funds take time to materialize.
A total of 67 million US dollars of the bank's investment would go to
the development of the 100 million watts at Huitengxile Wind Farm in the
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which is currently home to
approximately 70 million watts of wind generation capacity. An
additional 19.33 million US dollars would finance the rehabilitation and
development of selected small hydropower projects (not exceeding 10
million watts) in Zhejiang Province. Endtiem
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