A host of infrastructure projects in China's energy sector are being pushed forward to satiate the country's soaring energy demands, a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Tuesday.

Addressing the Higher-level Forum on China's Energy Strategy of the eighth China Beijing International High-Tech Expo Tuesday in Beijing, NDRC Vice-Minister Zhang Guobao said the central government has planned a raft of projects to ensure energy supply by promoting nuclear power, hydro-power and other renewables, and the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector.

"We have completed the blueprint to build large scale LNG facilities across the country," said Zhang, referring to the LNG projects in Guangdong and Fujian in South China currently under construction.

Many gas companies, both foreign and domestic, such as Sinopec, PetroChina, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), BP and Shell, have shown interest in China's LNG sector and submitted proposals to the top policy maker, the NDRC, to build LNG terminals close to China's coastal cities.

These pending gas projects could be in line with the policy planner's blueprint layout.

The country will also put an intensified focus on developing nuclear and renewable energies to generate power, Zhang indicated.

"The renewable energy law passed earlier this year has set a target to generate 20 million kilowatts of power using renewables by 2020," said Zhang.

Wind power will be the focus of much development, said Zhang, given China's huge land mass which has great potential for application of the technology. The word's second largest energy consumer after the United States will offer public tenders to global wind power equipment vendors to build several 1,000 megawatt wind power plants across the country, said Zhang.

These wind power plants will be located in China's wind-rich areas such as Jiangsu in the east, Guangdong in the south, Inner Mongolia in the north and Jilin in northeastern China.

On the nuclear power front, the State Council has recently approved projects to extend the Ling'ao plant in South China's Guangdong Province and the Qinshan plant in Zhejiang Province.

Two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors will be added in the Ling'ao phase two project, said Zhang.

A further two 650-megawatt reactors will be put into the phase two project at the Qinshan plant.

China has vowed to increase nuclear power generation fourfold to 40,000 megawatts by 2020. It will eventually account for 4 percent of the country's installed capacity - which means at least 30 new nuclear plants will need to be built within 15 years.

According to industry insiders more reactors are planned for Liaoning, Shandong and Guangdong.

The bidding process has recently been concluded for construction of 12 hydro-power generation units for the right bank power plant of the Three Gorges Project, Zhang added. The plant is expected to go operational in two to three years.

Surging energy demand and hefty investment in the energy sector have boosted rapid growth in China's equipment manufacturing industry and raw material production, said Zhang.

The fast expansion of the gas and power industry have provided a large number of orders to steel makers, ship builders and electric power equipment suppliers both in China and abroad.

China's large industrial producers such as Baosteel, Dalian Shipyard Co Ltd and other foreign power transmission & generation equipment makers such ABB, Alstom are all competing to supply the market Zhang said.

(China Daily May 25, 2005)