(Yicai) Aug. 12 -- China intends to hasten the construction of clean energy projects, including nuclear power, to ramp up the country’s green transition, according to new guidelines that mark the first time since the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 that China has explicitly outlined a plan to step up atomic power plant construction in an official document.

Under the guidelines released yesterday, China will spur the construction of wind and solar power projects in the northwest, hydropower schemes in the southwest, as well as offshore wind power and coastal nuclear power projects. It will also develop distributed solar and decentralized wind power facilities and new energy sources such as biomass, geothermal, and ocean energies.

Through these efforts, the country’s consumption of non-fossil fuel energy will increase to about 25 percent by 2030, up from about 18 percent last year, according to the guidelines.

China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, suspended the approval and construction of new nuclear power projects following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011. The halt lasted to April 2015, when approvals briefly resumed for eight new nuclear power units following a thorough review of safety standards and regulations. The country then suspended them again until 2019.

The pace of approvals has remained steady in recent years, giving the green light to 10 units last year and in 2022. China has invested about CNY20 billion (USD2.8 billion) in each million-kilowatt nuclear unit, with each cutting the use of standard coal at thermal power plants of the same size by 3 million tons a year.

In the next few years, nuclear power will enter a golden age of development in China, Wang Binghua, director of the Nuclear Energy Public Communication Committee of the China Nuclear Energy Association, previously told Yicai. The share of the nation’s electricity generated by nuclear power will double to about 10 percent by 2035, Wang said.

China has 56 nuclear power units in operation, tied in second place with France and behind the United States with 93 units. Since it has 38 units under construction or approved to be built, it will likely overtake France and catch up with the US.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev