China wants 500 GW of renewables by 2020

You know if you have been reading this blog for some time now : China is determined to become the leader on cleantech. But it’s not only about making money in tomorrow’s leading industry : it is also about the environment.

Indeed, if China is investing $12 million each hour on cleantech, it is also to clean the air and solve its dependence on dirty fossil fuels that pollutes massively the air of its capital and many other cities.

Today, Cleantechnica published an article reporting that the People’s Republic wants 500 GW of renewable energies by 2020.

Here are some extracts of the full article :

China’s plan is to get a total of 500 Gigawatts of renewable energy on the grid by 2020. It explodes wind power from a mere 25 GW on the grid now, to a staggering 150 GW, a six-fold increase on the previous already ambitious plan.

(…) China is already the world leader in solar thermal hot water heaters for rooftops. The solar hot water goal is to have 300 million square meters of solar hot water collectors, up from 100 million in 2006.

Electric power would come from adding 100 GW to make 300 GW of hydro power, adding 125 GW to have 150 GW of wind power, adding 28 GW to have 30 GW of biopower, and going from a half Gigawatt to 20 GW of solar. Giant steps.