Minister of MOST WAN Gang met with Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA) in Beijing on November 24.

Minister WAN said that the bottlenecks constraining the development of renewable energies could be addressed by the development of smart grids and other technologies; meanwhile, we should also explore new business models for renewable energies, e.g. storing wind power in vehicle batteries, in order to solve the problems presented by the on-and-off nature of renewable power. According to Minister WAN, MOST also pays close attention to development of other promising renewable energies, like non-conventional natural gas, underground coal gasification, biogas power from municipal wastes.

Nobuo Tanaka talked about the 2009 World Energy Outlook published by IEA recently, and the research findings on the technological roadmaps for wind energy, solar energy, carbon capture and storage, and electric vehicles.

Minister WAN also mentioned the establishment of China-US Clean Energy Research Center. Nobuo Tanaka expressed support for such bilateral cooperation and willingness to participate.

Besides, Minister WAN invited IEA delegation to attend Shanghai World Expo next year, and he introduced the application of energy-efficient technologies, including zero-emission technologies in the Expo Park. The two also exchanged ideas on co-hosting forums on electric vehicles/plug-in hybrid vehicles and energy sustainability in China next year.