China still world leader in wind power

China’s great wind revolution answers its need for clean energy and a clean environment.

In 2011, China consolidated its position as the world's wind power leader in both newly and cumulative installed capacities, installing wind turbines with a total capacity of 17.6 gigawatts.

Although generation capacity last year dropped 6.9% from 2010, new capacity in 2011 brought China's cumulative installed wind power electrical generation capacity to 62.4 gigawatts, up 39% year-on-year.

The drop was caused by stricter approval procedures for new projects imposed by the government following a series of major faults on large wind farms.

Last year, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Company one of the world’s top five wind turbine makers, installed 3.6 gigawatts of new turbines giving it a 20% market share.

Beijing-based Sinovel Wind Group Company installed 2.9 gigawatts. Despite this, its market share in 2011 fell to 17% percent from 23 percent in 2010.

The top five Chinese provincial regions for newly installed wind turbines were Inner Mongolia (3.7 gigawatts), Hebei (2.1 gigawatts), Shandong (1.9 gigawatts), Ningxia (1.7 gigawatts) and Liaoning (1.2 gigawatts).

The top five wind power regions in terms of cumulative wind turbine installations are Inner Mongolia with 17.6 gigawatts; Hebei , 6.9 gigawatts, Gansu, 5.4 gigawatts; Liaoning, 5.2 gigawatts and Shandong, 4.6 gigawatts.

According to the International Energy Agency’s “Technology Roadmaps - China Wind Energy Development Roadmap 2050,” China could be producing 1,000 gigawatts of electricity from wind power by 2050, which would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 gigatonnes annually, an amount about equal to the combined CO2 emissions of Germany, France and Italy in 2009.