(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-19 09:29

A new report from the World Bank highlights commitments to renewable resources and energy conservation in China.

The Chinese government made a commitment earlier this year to install 30 gigawatts of wind by 2020, but it won't be going it alone, according to a new report from the World Bank.

The bank's report, China and the World Bank: A Partnership for Innovation, details recent renewable energy commitments that the bank and China have worked on together, and talks about future plans for energy conservation in the country.

"Supporting China in its effort to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases is a top priority of the World Bank in China," said Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, in a statement.

The Washington, D.C.-based bank is owned by 185 member countries and is made up of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association.

In September, installation was completed on a World Bank funded wind farm on Pingtan island, off the coast of Fuzhou.

The bank said the 100 megawatt project is expected to produce 270 million kilowatt hours annually next year. The bank lent China $67 million to finance the wind farm in 2005.

Half of the power from the farm is expected to cover the needs of the island's 400,000 residents and small businesses, with the rest to be exported to the mainland through an undersea cable.

"Our real objective is to get a large number of investors in this field," said Richard Spencer, a senior energy specialist with the World Bank.

China had about 100 wind farms at the end of 2006, amounting to 2.64 GW. The government plans to install 5 GW of wind power by 2010 before hitting the much bigger 2020 goal.

"The World Bank alone can't finance all the wind farms China wants to install. We want to demonstrate that a large-scale wind farm using best international practice is possible," he said.

According to the report, energy consumption grew at nearly 10 percent per year between 2000 and 2005, more than twice the yearly rate of the previous two decades.

The report said the sudden surge in energy consumption, driven mainly by heavy industry, forced China to increase its reliance on coal-fired power to almost 70 percent of its energy needs.

The country's carbon dioxide emissions nearly doubled in the last 6 years, according to the bank.

In addition to wind, the bank is working with China to reform land use, water management and home heating.

The still-dominant traditional heat supply systems pump out heat to residences using Soviet-era central heat system technology, according to the report.

People are unable to control their own heating levels, and the bills, which are paid by employers instead of consumers, are based on heated floor area rather than heat consumption.

The China Energy Efficiency Financing Project includes a proposed $200 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and $13.5 million from the Global Environment Facility, another Washington, D.C.-based lending group.

"In most cases, what the World Bank brings to China is not financing but the expertise and experience from around the world which we use to design projects," said Zoellick.

"Indeed since 2005, 70 percent of our projects in China deal with the environment," he said.

China just became a contributor to the World Bank for the first time, putting up an undisclosed amount for the International Development Association, which provides grants and no interest credits to the world's poorest countries.

"With this contribution, China has moved within less than a decade from being a successful IDA recipient to a global partner," said Zoellick.

China has received more than $9.9 billion in IDA credits since 1981, but stopped being an IDA client in 1999, when its growing prosperity qualified it for more market-based terms from the World Bank.

The IDA's fifteenth replenishment concluded in Berlin earlier this month, raising a record $41.6 billion, up from the previous fund raising of $32.1 billion.