Wind power industry facing big challenges

China Daily, January 20, 2011

China's wind power industry is facing bottleneck issues that may shake its leading position, despite having the world's largest installed wind turbine capacity.

China increased its total wind power capacity to 41.8 gigawatts (gW) in 2010, up 16 gW or 62 percent in 2010 from the previous year, according to statistics from the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

For the first time, China's newly installed wind capacity has slowed down since 2005, when the industry started taking off.

Favorable government policies have helped the industry to double the country's wind power capacity every year since 2005, as the government set a target to make renewable energy account for 10 percent of the country's energy mix by 2010.

But the target was not met, as hydro, solar and wind power combined made up a mere 9 percent of the country's energy needs at the end of 2010, according to the association.

Moreover, grid-connected capacity lags behind installed capacity by more than 30 percent, in comparison to the 10 percent gap in developed countries, undermining China's wind power efficiency and effectiveness.

"Despite the achievements in China's wind power industry, we have to face difficulties in equipment quality control, availability and power generation efficiency," said Li Junfeng, director of the association.