By Colin Payne / Source: Inhabitat

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The world’s most populous country is about to invest a whole lot of money in clean energy. Clean Technica reports that China is planning to spend about $174 billion on hydroelectric and wind energy projects over the next four years. The news comes from reports from China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) that were obtained recently by Reuters.

To break it down further, China’s NEA is planning to spend about 1.2 trillion yuan, or $174 billion U.S. on renewable energy between 2016 and 2020. That money will largely go towards the construction of new wind farms, the building of which is predicted to provide about 300,000 jobs over the next four years. They’re also planning to put in place a market-based subsidy for the wind industry.

To those familiar with China, news like this will come as no surprise, as the country has been largely leading the charge when it comes to implementing clean energy projects. They have been moving away from coal power, and recently signed on to the Paris climate deal along with the U.S. The Chinese even recently told Donald Trump that climate change is not a hoax, and then publicly criticized him for his plan to pull out of the Paris agreement.

While solar growth in China was slower this year, the country will have installed about 30 gigawatts of new solar capacity by the end of this year. Part of that capacity could come from the giant solar plant that China is building at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine.

Read more @ Inhabitat