Last year China consumed 2,252b tons of the oil equivalent of coal, oil, nuclear power, natural gas and hydropower, about 4% more than the US, the IEA data showed.

If we meet our goals, these standards will cut energy consumption by the equivalent of 10-20 coal-fired power plants by 2010.

Repeated across the country, the technology could generate up to 1GW – equivalent to the output of a conventional coal or nuclear power station.