China to limit annual electricity growth to 8%

Will also reduce the building of new coal-fired power plants.

China aims to cap the growth of electricity consumption at 8% a year from 2010 to 2015 while increasing the share that comes from wind, solar, nuclear and other renewable sources.

Its 12th five-year plan should see China reduce energy consumption by 16% annually and carbon emissions by 17% per unit of Gross Domestic Product from 2010 to 2015.

The plan sees a near doubling of consumer power consumption per capita. It calls for China to get 11.4% of its electricity from non-fossil sources by 2015 compared to 8.6% in 2010. Coal’s share of generating capacity will drop from 68% in 2010 to less than 65%.

Under the plan, power from solar plants will increase by 89.5% a year over the same period. Wind capacity will increase 26.4%; nuclear power by 29.9%; natural gas by 16.2% and coal by 7.8%.