China wind power capacity rising

Newly installed wind power capacity will see up to 19 gigawatts added to China’s grid this year.

China became the world’s largest producer of wind power in 2011.

A report on China's wind power outlook jointly released by the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace forecast that China's wind power sector will maintain the steady growth momentum seen last year.

China installed 17.6 GW of new wind power capacity in 2011, or 43% of the world's total. It remained the world's largest wind power producer with an accumulated capacity of 62.4 GW by 2011, representing 26.2% of the world's total wind power capacity, the report said.

By the end of 2011, 47.8 GW of wind power capacity, or 77% of China's total capacity, was connected to its power grid, an improvement from 69.9% in 2010.

China plans to have a total on-grid wind power capacity of more than 100 GW by 2015 and 200 GW by 2020, according to a national plan on renewable energy development released by the National Energy Administration.