CHINA

SUPPORTING POLICIES FOR OCEAN ENERGY 

NATIONAL STRATEGY
The Chinese Government released the “Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development”, in March 2016, providing a framework for economic and social development of China. The plan highlights the potential opportunities for the energy mix, and the active exploitation of tidal power in coastal areas.

The “Action Plan for Energy Technology Revolution and Innovation (2016-2030)” was released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) in March 2016. The plan sets goals to develop high efficiency power generation devices in marine renewable energy (MRE), implement MW MRE energy demonstration projects, and establish a complete industry chain of MRE by 2030. In December 2016, the “13th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy” was released by NEA. The plan emphasizes the importance of promoting the demonstration and application of MRE, accelerating the construction of national ocean energy test sites and solving the bottlenecks influencing the energy conversion efficiency of ocean energy.

The State Oceanic Administration (SOA) is developing the “13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) for Marine Renewable Energy Development”. The plan sets goals to construct three marine renewable energy industrial parks, implement 6-8 island multi-energy complementary projects based on marine renewable energy, reach demonstration projects into 50 MW in total by 2020.

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
In December 2016, the Amendment to the “Interim Measure for the Special Funding Programme for Marine Renewable Energy” was released by SOA. It adjusted the focus of SFPMRE, including demonstration of key technologies and industrialization, large scale development, public platform construction, and integration of marine renewable energy.

MARKET INCENTIVES
In February 2016, the “Guidance on Promoting the Development of the ‘Internet +’ Smart Power” was released by NEA, emphasizing to build the Intelligent system of energy consumption and improve the proportion of RE as well distributed energy in the electricity supply.

PUBLIC FUNDING PROGRAMMES
In 2016, RMB 100 million budgets were granted by SFPMRE (Special Funding Plan for Marine Renewable Energy) to support 6 projects, including the tidal current energy demonstration, buoy system based on wave energy, power system of instruments based on tidal current energy, power system of offshore cage based on wave energy, assessment system of MRE technology, data system of MRE resource. To date, China has committed approximately RMB 1 billion to marine renewable energy RD&D since 2010.