On the coast of China's Jiangsu Province, one of the most prosperous regions in the country, there is a cluster of nuclear power plants and wind farms either in operation or soon to come online. Using technology both developed domestically and overseas, they are changing the energy landscape of the area.

As one of the country's industrial hubs, Jiangsu currently needs to import 80 percent of the energy it consumes from other regions. But with the rapid development of new energy industries, the province is expected to be another energy production base in China, said Mao Weiming, director of Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission, the economic planning body of the province.

The province has set up a development target for its energy industry in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), said Mao. "It is without doubt that the development of new energy industries, such as wind power, nuclear power and the smart grid, will be our focus over the next five years."

Jiangsu is one of seven planned wind power bases in the country, each with a minimum potential of 10 gigawatts (gW). So far, power capacity of 1.2 gW generated by wind farms has been connected to the power grid, and 800 megawatts (mW) of wind power plants are under construction, said Mao.

"It has been shown there is 21 gW of wind energy resource in Jiangsu, which is equivalent to the output of another Three Gorges project," he said.

Other clean energy generating sectors such as nuclear and biomass power have also seen a boost in Jiangsu. "At present non-coal power generation accounts for around 15 percent of the total power capacity in our province. We plan to increase the figure by one percentage point a year between 2011 and 2015," said Mao.

Most dynamic sector

Other provinces in China have drawn up ambitious plans to develop new energy in their 12th Five-Year Plans. "New energy has become the most dynamic sector in the country," said Li Junfeng, deputy director-general of the Energy Research Institute (ERI), part of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The development of new energy industries will also be highlighted in China's national 12th Five-Year Plan for the energy industry, said Li. "In terms of scale they will be developed in this sequence: nuclear, hydro, wind and solar energy," he said.

The four sectors are also the most developed new energy resources in the country at present.

It is essential for China to develop new energy industries if the country is to achieve its targets in emissions control and environmental protection, said analysts.

China has already set up two major targets for energy and the environment. They are to increase the use of non-fossil energy to 15 percent of primary energy consumption in 2020, and to reduce carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent in 2020 from the 2005 levels. Development of new energies is a must to achieve these two targets, said Wang Zhongying, a researcher with ERI.

With such targets in mind, China should take steps to increase the use of non-fossil energies to around 13 percent by the end of 2015, said ERI's Li.