China made remarkable progress in wind power development in 2007
and the industry will expect further regulatory boost in the coming
years.
China Electricity Council, an industry association, said the
wind power sector generated electricity of 5.6 billion kilowatt
hours last year, a growth of 95.2 percent over the previous year.
The growth rate was 22 percentage points higher than the year
before.
According to Zhang Guobao, deputy head of the National
Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency
has taken a string of measures to support the exploration of wind
power. Included were conducting survey of wind resources,
organizing biddings for franchise of large wind power projects, and
promoting localization of domestically produced wind power
equipment.
All these policies have paid off, Zhuang said.
In future years, the government may deregulate the approval of
wind power projects, he added
China had wind power facilities with a combined installed
capacity of 6.05 million kw at the end of 2007, increasing from
2.67 million kw a year earlier. It has achieved the goal set for
the 2010 three years ahead of schedule.
Wind power projects that are being built involve a combined
installed capacity of 4.2 million kw, Zhang said.
Now China ranks the fifth in the world in terms of wind power
installed capacity, still far behind Germany, which is the top wind
power producer with a total installed capacity of 20.62 million
kw.
China plans to increase its wind power equipment to a combined
installed capacity of 10 million kw by 2015, and to 30 million kw
by 2020.
In a related development, China had electricity generating
equipment with a total installed capacity of 713 million kw at the
end of 2007, and the year saw the country generate 3.26 trillion
kwh of electricity.
(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2008)
