The green electric power mechanism, a system that asked enterprises to voluntarily buy green electric power at a higher price based on governmental promotion, hasn`t gotten the expected results after more than one year of operation.

The green electric power means power generated from wind energy, solar power, terrestrial heat and other recycled energies. Currently, most of Shanghai`s green electric power is from wind energy.

Statistics from the Shanghai Economic Commission showed that by the end of May this year, only 21 enterprises in Shanghai (seven were Stated-owned enterprises, others were foreign enterprises) bought 8.45 million kilowatt-hours of green electric power. In addition, 1,749 households in the city bought 267,000 kilowatt-hours of green electric power.

China Huaneng Group, the nation`s largest power company, officially launched the construction of its first nuclear power plant using high temperature gas-cooled reactors yesterday.

It signed an agreement with China Nuclear Engineering & Construction (Group) Corporation (CNECC) and Tsinghua University to set up a new company for the operation of the plant.

The Shidaowan plant, which is located in Rongcheng, East China`s Shandong Province, will have a capacity of 200 MW (megawatts). The total investment is 3 billion yuan (US$384 million).

Under the agreement, China Huaneng will fund 47.5 per cent of the investment, while CNECC and Tsinghua University will contribute 32.5 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

"The move is an important step for us in the development of nuclear power, as well as China`s nuclear power industry," said Li Xiaopeng, president of China Huaneng.

A high-temperature gas-cooled reactor has a high efficiency, security and utility rate, he said.

Today, nuclear plants commonly use pressurized water or boiling water reactors.

Currently worldwide there are five high temperature gas-cooled reactors, and two high temperature gas-cooled reactor power plants with a generating capacity of 300 MW, according to China Huaneng.

China`s first 10 MW high temperature gas-cooled experiment reactor was designed and constructed by the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology of Tsinghua University and started successful generation in January 2003, said Gu Binglin, president of Tsinghua University.

The construction of the Shidaowan plant will improve the technology levels of China`s nuclear power industry, he said.

Earlier, China signed an agreement with US-based Westinghouse Electric Co to build four nuclear reactors in the nation. The deal is estimated at US$8 billion.

Stephen Tritch, Westinghouse`s president and chief executive, said the details of the contract to build facilities at Sanmen, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, and at Yangjiang in southern China`s Guangdong Province have yet to be finalised.

He said the company wants the plants to become operational by 2013.

China has chosen Westinghouse`s AP1000 technology after careful appraisal, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation`s economic watchdog.

AP1000, a third generation nuclear technology, relies on gravity rather than mechanical pumps to carry water to a reactor in an emergency.

China`s coal power plants today account for about 70 per cent of the country`s total electricity output.

The government has vowed to promote clean energy sources, such as nuclear power, to meet electricity needs.

The government aims to increase the capacity of nuclear power stations to 40 GW (gigawatts) by 2020, accounting for 4 per cent of total capacity.

South China`s Guangdong Province is planning to spend nearly 74 billion yuan (US$9.45 billion) building three major nuclear power stations by 2010.

The size of the investment will set a precedent for spending on power-generation, surpassing outlays on traditional coal-fired and hydroelectric power plants, Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.

During the 11th Five-year Plan (2006-10), Guangdong will focus on developing the second phase of the Ling`ao Nuclear Power Station, the first phase of Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station and the first phase of Taishan Nuclear Power Station, said Chen Shanru, director of the Development and Reform Commission of Guangdong Province.

By 2020, the installed capacity of all nuclear power stations in Guangdong is expected to reach 24 million kilowatts, accounting for 60 per cent of the country`s total nuclear power output.

Of the country`s current installed capacity of 8.7 million kilowatts, nearly 4 million kilowatts are generated in Guangdong.

The project is part of a larger effort to restructure the province`s power-supply. The project`s goal is to develop more clean energy to fuel Guangdong`s fast-growing economy, Chen was quoted as saying.

The province, which is home to the country`s largest economy, lacks the energy resources necessary to develop traditional power stations. Guangdong imports most of its coal and petroleum from other parts of the country or from abroad.

Construction of the second phase of Ling`ao Nuclear Power Station in Shenzhen started at the end of last year.

It was the country`s only nuclear power station project between 2001 and 2005. Its two 1-million-kilowatt power generators will start operating in 2010 and 2011.

Construction of the first phase of the Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station will start early next year.

The time frame for the Taishan Nuclear Power Station has not been decided yet.

Both the Yangjiang and Taishan plants are located in West Guangdong.

Chen said the province had chosen 10 sites for new nuclear power stations, and the feasibility studies have been going smoothly.

Two projects, located in Zhaoqing and Yunfu, are expected to take priority among the 10, according to the Xinhua News Agency report.

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) — China has suspended further expansion of its ethanol industry as processing corn for fuel and other industrial uses is being blamed for soaring grain prices.

With grain prices rising almost five percent in November, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has ordered local governments to stop approving new projects that process corn for industrial uses.

The order, from China`s top economic planning body, urges local governments to use non-grain vegetation to produce bio-fuels and develop the industry more effectively.

China is now producing 10 million tons of ethanol, which is mixed with 20 percent of the country`s gasoline.

China processed more than 23 million tons of corn for industrial use last year, an increase of 84 percent from 2001, while output of corn only grew by 21.9 percent over the same period.

Expanding industrial demand, along with increasing need for corn by livestock and the reluctance of corn growers to sell in expectation for higher prices, have contributed to a 6.8 percent rise in the price of corn this year.

"Excessive expansion of corn growing will squeeze the production of wheat and rice," said an official with the NDRC, who would not provide his name.

The rapid expansion of the corn processing industry will hurt the industry`s development, he noted.

China has approved four pilot ethanol projects, with annual output of 1.02 million tons.

Ethanol mixed with gasoline is sold in five provinces and 27 cities in China, accounting for 20 percent of the country`s total gasoline consumption.

The price of major grain products, including rice, flour and cooking oil have surged recently in many Chinese cities.

Figures with the National Bureau of Statistics show that the price of grain products rose 4.7 percent in November.

BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) — Qinshan Nuclear Power Station, China`s first nuclear power station, will celebrate 15 years of trouble-free operation on Friday.

The 300,000-kw station, nestled in Hangzhou Bay of east China`s Zhejiang Province, started power generation on Dec. 15, 1991.

It made China the seventh country in the world to independently design and build a nuclear power station.

The power station had generated a total of 28.5 billion kwhs by the end of last month, feeding the thirst for electricity of the economic powerhouses in east China.

The provincial environmental protection investigators have not detected any adverse effects on the environment from the station`s nuclear radiation.

"It`s 15-year-operation means an emission reduction of 200,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 30 million tons of carbon dioxide," said Qinshan nuclear power company`s generation director He Xiaojian.

The station is designed to have a 30-year life span. Technicians are working on expanding the life of its generating sets.

Millions of dollars have been invested in technical renovations of the station every year since 1991. Large-scale renovations are expected in five to ten years.

According to a state nuclear power development plan adopted by the State Council early this year, China will increase its combined nuclear power capacity to 40,000 megawatts by 2020, a plan that will require about two 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plants to be built each year for the next 15 years.

The second phase of Qinshan was completed in the first half of this year. It has an installed capacity of 600,000 kws.

China has six nuclear power plants with 11 reactors, all located along its economically thriving east and southeast coasts.

Companies have announced plans to build additional plants in the provinces of Fujian in the southeast, Shandong in the east and Hunan in central China.

BEIJING, Dec. 12 — A senior Chinese official has assured the public of sufficient food supplies amid rising concerns over the potential impact of developing biofuel from grains.

Zhu Zhigang, vice minister of finance, said on Saturday that biofuel and biochemistry must only be developed on the basis of guaranteeing China`s food supplies first.

He made the comments as grain prices have risen particularly for corn the main raw material for ethanol a crude oil substitute and an environment-friendly energy.

Ethanol has been the main biofuel produced in China with output hitting 1.02 million tons last year — and corn accounting for 76 per cent of the raw material. The others are wheat and sorghum.

Zhai Huqu, president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, earlier said China cannot afford using grain for developing energy.

"We can do research on using corn and other grains as an energy substitute but it cannot be industrialized," Zhai was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

"It will be a disaster for us if we depend on a huge amount of corn and other grains for energy."

Zhu also stressed that grain is crucially important to China, since the country`s arable land is insufficient for a population of 1.3 billion.

Only when the supply of grain exceeds demand, then part of it should be processed into biofuel.

Such a move balances supply and demand, and protects a farmer`s enthusiasm for crop growing, he said.

"China will carefully evaluate the grain consumption of the biofuel project and its influence on the food chain," Zhu was quoted as saying by China News Service.

"The government will impose strict controls on any biofuel project using grain as the raw material."

The senior official said the government will encourage the use of non-grain agricultural and forestry plants for developing biofuel.

For biofuel projects that use agricultural plants and wastes, the government will require them to build a raw material production base, which must use uncultivated land instead of arable land.

The potential resources are abundant. Official statistics showed that China has nearly 2 billion mu (133 million hectares) of wasteland that is suitable for growing agricultural and forestry products.

China also produces 600 million tons of farming and forestry wastes such as stalks.

China is likely to launch a nuclear power project with one-million-kilowatt capacity in the eastern province of Zhejiang, an official with the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said.

The project is proposed by the CNNC, a state-owned nuclear energy conglomerate, to build a domestically manufactured nuclear plant of such a massive capacity.

Actually it is part of an extension project of the Qinshan nuclear power plant in east China`s Zhejiang Province.

Experts have approved a feasibility report and the central government is examining the project proposal, safety analysis of plant location, and evaluation report of the impact on environment.

"It takes us six years and more 200 million yuan (25 million U.S. dollars) to design the project," said CNNC General Manager Kang Rixin.

China began developing its nuclear power industry in the late 1980s to help ease the energy bottleneck. In March this year, the State Council adopted a strategy to promote nuclear power capacity.

The goal is to make the nation`s total installed capacity of nuclear power reach 40 million kilowatts by 2020.

The Chinese government has issued a package of policies, including risk reserves, subsidies and tax breaks, to encourage the development of the bio-energy and bio-chemical industries, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Thursday.

Under the new policies, enterprises should set up risk reserves, which will be used to offset their losses when the oil price is low.

When the oil price is low for a sustained period, a government subsidy regime will be triggered to cover the losses of enterprises.

The new policies were jointly issued by the NDRC, the ministries of finance and agriculture, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Forestry Administration.

The government will also provide subsidies to developers of raw material supply bases for the bio-energy and bio-chemical industries, particularly those using non-arable land.

Subsidies will also be available to model projects with significant technical innovations.

The bio-energy industry was important for environmental protection, rural development, in addition to being a new source of growth for the economy, an NDRC official said.

After years of trials in selected provinces, the government has begun pouring huge investment into the bio-energy sector.

The country produced 1.02 million tons of bio-ethanol from corn and other raw materials in 2005. The ethanol is added to petrol at a ratio of 1:10 for use in automobiles.

The government estimates that by 2010, ethanol-mix petrol will account for half of China`s petrol consumption.

Large firms, such as the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp (COFCO), have announced ambitious plans for bio-energy investments.

CNPC has signed an agreement with the government of Sichuan Province in southwest China to develop facilities to produce 600,000 tons of automotive-grade ethanol from sweet potatoes each year and 100,000 tons bio-diesel made from the seeds of the jatropha curcas tree.

COFCO said in October it would invest one billion yuan (126 million U.S. dollars) to build a major ethanol plant in Guangxi region, also in southwest China.

The plant, with a capacity of 400,000 tons, will lift 1.1 million farmers out of poverty by growing cassava as the raw material for the plant, said Yue Guojun, head of COFCO`s bio-chemical and bio-energy division.