Cashing in on China’s renewable energy boom

China is set to spend $200 billion on renewable energy over the next 15 years, and industry players are racing to grab a slice of the action.

That kind of money would buy you an oil firm the size of Chevron and leave change to fund the current renewables programs of all Europe’s top oil firms for 25 years.

So from the arid plains of Xinjiang to the rolling hills of sub-tropical Guangdong, Chinese and foreign firms are erecting 40-storey wind turbines, installing solar panels, and conducting tests on corn for biofuel.
Renewable energy projects need intensive and long term government support. Beijing appears to have the resolve — and the need — to push ahead, but a proper system of tax or policy incentives could take years.

“Solar energy today is still expensive,” said Chan Ka Keung, managing director at the renewable division of CLP Holdings Ltd.

Reuters