China and the quest for (electrical) power

Back in February 2006 I blogged about a BBC news report, commenting:

To give you a feel for how much power China needs they are currently, on average, bringing on one new power station a week!

Well 18 months later the BBC now says, as part of an article about China’s attempts to cut emissions by 10% between 2005 and 2010:

However, with China now building about two new fossil fuel power stations every week, Western environmental commentators say it will be all but impossible for it to achieve that reduction.

If that is correct and their building program has doubled in 18 months and if it follows a sort of Moore’s law for power stations then we’re looking at around one new power station a day by the end of the decade.