In 2009 China became the world leader in wind power, and this year alone it will install 15GW.
A joint study by the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, the Global Wind Energy Council, and Greenpeace has recently estimated that China’s wind power capacity could reach 300GW by 2020, and then more than 400GW by 2030. That would mean that wind power would account for about 8.4 percent of China’s total electricity generation and 15 percent of its total installed energy generation capacity.
Li Yan, the head of the climate and energy campaign at Greenpeace East Asia, said that “there is every reason that China should support wind power: resources are abundant, production costs are lowering, and the technology is maturing, all of which make commercial development very promising.”
The main hurdle that China must overcome in order to install this remarkable volumes of capacity is the imbalance between the geographical location of the wind farms, and the cities where the power is needed. “China’s wind power resources are largely concentrated in China’s northern, northwestern and northeastern regions, but the main power demand comes from along the eastern coastal region.”
Steve Sawyer, the Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council, said that “globally speaking, Asia will become the world’s biggest wind power market, topping Europe and North America.”
By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com
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