China Adds 18.9 GW of Wind Power

As China has recognized, wind power isa boon to heavy manufacturing which classically works on low margins anyway butproduces plenty of high paying manufacturing jobs.  I posted back in 2008, that the USA needed topush wind power heavily for just that reason.

Eventually they get paid for andin the meantime we have a huge addition in clean energy while supporting heavyindustry through a period of low demand. This something an industrial czar can do as was done here. 

The rate of expansion is awe inspiringand will explain why Chinahas passed through this global recession so well.

China adds 18.9 GW of new wind power capacity in2010

 06 / 04 / 2011 09:44 Age: 1 days

http://www.gwec.net/index.php?id=30&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=287&tx_ttnews[backPid]=97&cHash=e58723cd03

Beijing/Brussels, 6 April 2011. China added 18.9 GW of new wind powercapacity, thereby reaching a total installed capacity of 44.7 GW. This figure,which was published today by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the ChineseRenewable Energy Industry Association (CREIA) and the Chinese Wind EnergyAssociation (CWEA), is substantially higher than the initial estimate releasedearlier this year.

These new numbers for China also result in revised figures for globalwind power growth in 2010, with the new capacity added over the year amountingto 38.3 GW (close to the 2009 market), taking the total to 197 GW, whichrepresents a 24% growth.

“Chinahas become the single largest driver for global wind power development. In2010, every second wind turbine that was added anywhere in the world wasinstalled in China.” said Steve Sawyer, GWEC’s Secretary General.

“The installed capacity of 44.7 GW includes turbines which have beengrid connected and are delivering electricity, even if they have not yetcompleted the commissioning and acceptance procedure, which can take severalmonths. This explains the much reported ‘gap’ between installation and gridconnection which is often reported from China. In other markets, it iscommon practice to include all turbines as soon as they are grid connected andproducing electricity,” said Qin Haiyan, Secretary General of CWEA.

China’s wind market doubled every year between 2005 and 2009 in termsof total installed capacity, and it has been the world’s largest annual marketsince 2009. In 2010, Chinaovertook the United Statesas the country with the most installed wind energy capacity.

This strong growth in Chinahas had a significant impact on the market shares of wind turbinemanufacturers, which see Chinese companies increasing their overall shares ofthe global wind markets.

“The growth of wind power in China has also spurred a boom in domesticmanufacturing, and four out of the top 10 global wind turbine manufacturers arenow Chinese, with Sinovel and Goldwind ranking second and fourth respectively,”said Li Junfeng, CREIA’s President. “Domestic manufacturers now supply morethan 50% of the equipment used in Chinese wind power projects.”

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the growth in installedcapacity was driven by a record level of investment in wind power in China, whichexceeded US$ 20 billion in 2009. In the third quarter of 2010, China’sinvestment in new wind power projects accounted for half of the global total.

The Chinese government report Development Planning of New EnergyIndustry  optimistically calculated that the cumulative installed capacityof China’s wind power will reach 200 GW by 2020 and generate 440 TWh ofelectricity annually, creating more than RMB 250 billion (EUR 28 bn / USD 38bn) in revenue.

The Chinese government’s twelfth Five-Year Plan, which was passed bythe Chinese Parliament in March 2011, reflects the Chinese government’scontinuous and reinforced commitment to wind power development, with a targetof building an additional 90 GW of wind energy by 2015.