BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhuanet) -- China will increase the use of renewable energy until it accounts for 10 percent of the country'stotal energy consumption by the year 2020, said experts at the China Energy Strategy Higher Level Forum here Thursday.

    Hu Runqing, researcher with the energy research institute of the State Development and Reform Commission, said China is set to boost the development of renewable energy resources to an equivalent of 300 million tons of coal by 2020.

    By that time, she said, the installed capacity of power plants fueled by renewable energy resources would account for 30 percent of the nation's total, and more than 40 percent by 2030. Currently,the figure is about 3 percent.

    Developing renewable energy resources is significant to China'seconomic growth and will help ensure energy supply, Hu said at thethree-day forum, which ended on Thursday.

    According to estimates, China's domestic energy production would stand at an equivalent of 2.4 billion tons of coal by 2020 while the energy demand would rise to 3 billion tons based on the current consumption pattern.

    "This means more than half of China's petroleum and natural gassupply would rely on foreign resources," said the researcher, adding that making intensified efforts to tap renewable energy resources would be a major solution to China's energy problems, which include the control of greenhouse gas emissions as a result of coal burning.

    China has the potential to develop 400 million kilowatts of hydraulic power and 1 billion kilowatts of wind power, in additionto the rich solar energy resources in two-thirds of its 9.6 million-square kilometer land territory. Meanwhile, the total amount of the country's bio-energy resources is expected to reach the equivalent of 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion tons of coal a year by 2020.

    China's renewable energy resources law, ratified in February this year, will take effect as of June 1, 2006. Sources said the detailed rules for the implementation of the law would be drawn out very soon. Enditem