Green power incentives urged
19/3/2004 13:07
The municipal government will reward local households and enterprises
using 'green power' which will promote environmentally friendly power
consumption and ease the city's electricity shortage.
"Green power",
electricity generated from wind power sources or solar power plants, produces
far less pollution than the traditional coal-fire power plants.
Despite
its environmental advantages, green power is not profitable at the present, due
to the limits in both scale and technique. Prices of green power for end users
are also higher than those for electricity generated from coal-fired
plants.
Experts are therefore calling on the city government to adopt a
mechanism of incentives to encourage individuals and enterprises to purchase
green power.
To date Shanghai has four wind turbines with 3400-kilowatt
generating capacity, and one solar power network with a ten-kilowatt capacity in
its suburban Fengxian area. Another wind turbine network of 20,000-kilowatt
capacity will be connected to the city's power grid by the
year-end.
However, the use of green power among consumers is tiny
compared with the city's total power consumption. Shanghai experienced a severe
power shortage last summer during a heat wave. This in summer, power consumption
is estimated to reach a record-breaking 16.7 million kilowatts.
Statistics show that China needs to double its coal output from the
current 1.6 billion tons to three-billion tons by 2010 if the nation continues
to use the coal-fired power.
Michelle Lu/Shanghai Daily news
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