The time is now ripe to boost large-scale development of renewable energies, China's top planning body said, adding that it would accelerate renewable use in poor areas without grid connections.
"Developing clean energy technologies, especially accelerating the development and use of renewable resources, is a must to realize sustainable development," the National Development and Reform Commission said in an industry blueprint posted on its Website yesterday.
It said "the time for large-scale development and use of renewable energy is basically ripe" and that it is the common view of society at large.
To reduce its heavy reliance on increasingly expensive foreign oil and the vast environmental toll, China has been pursuing non-fossil energy supply and encouraging conservation.
"As huge swings in crude oil prices won't change in the next 10 years or longer, and the effect of conservation in curbing demand growth will only be reflected six to eight years later, it's a golden time now to develop oil alternatives," Deng Yusong, a fellow researcher at the Development Research Center, a government think-tank under the State Council.
The NDRC said it would continue to develop small-sized hydroelectric power stations, wind farms and solar energy in remote areas to benefit about one million households by 2010 which do not have grid connection now.
The economic planner yesterday reiterated an earlier goal that China would raise renewable energy to 10 percent of its total energy use by the end of 2010. It said the most recent ratio was 7.5 percent for 2005.
The NDRC urged relevant government bodies to speed up drafting rules on tax incentives and supporting policies.