China soon to be biggest wind producer

China Wind Power Capacity is set to lead globally in 2010, with installed capacity nearing 40 GW, as NEA targets 35 GW and GWEC, BNEF report a U.S. renewables slowdown.

China is expected to surpass the United States in the installed capacity of wind power and become the largest producer in the world by the end of 2010, said Wu Yin, the vice director of the National Energy Administration NEA at the Chinese Energy Enterprises Summit Forum 2010, which was held in Beijing recently.

This is the first public confirmation from a Chinese official that the installed capacity of wind power in China will be the highest wind power capacity in the world.

Just recently, the NEA said that the installed capacity of wind power in China would reach 35 gigawatts GW by the end of this year, and that Chinese wind could increase five-fold by 2020 as part of longer-term plans. The actual installed capacity might surpass this figure, Wu said, he gave no specific prediction.

China's installed capacity of wind power received an additional 13.8 GW in 2009, and earlier it added 3,304 megawatts during a prior year, underscoring rapid growth. As of the end of 2009, China's accumulative installed capacity of wind power reached 25.8 GW, having surpassed the 15.85 GW milestone earlier in the decade, ranking second just after the United States' 35.06 GW. If 2010 sees the same level of new construction as 2009, China's installed capacity of wind power will be close to 40 GW by the end of this year.

According to a latest report of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and consistent with findings that global wind capacity was up in 2008, it's expected that the new installations of wind power in the United States will drop 39 compared with the previous year. Mr. Steve Sawyer, Secretary of the Global Wind Energy Council GWEN, said at a recent news conference for the publication of the Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010, that the installed capacity of wind power in China might surpass the United States at the end of this year, but no official response was given at that time.

Related News

• Electricity Forum News

• Power Generation News