China invested 6 billion US dollars in renewable energy in 2005 (excluding large scale hydro) out of a global total investment of 38 billion US dollars, according to Eric Martinot, senior research fellow with the US-based Worldwatch Institute and senior visiting scholar at Tsinghua University.

A new law promoting renewable energy came into effect in China at the beginning of this year. By 2010 renewable energy (excluding large scale hydro) will account for 5% of China's total primary energy consumption and this percentage is planned to increase to 10% by 2020. Including large hydro, these figures are 10% and 20% respectively.

According to Martinot the renewable energy industry worldwide is booming. There are now more than 70 renewable energy companies worldwide with market capitalisations of more than 40 million US dollars.