Share
At the end of 2009, China became the third-largest wind power producer
On Thursday 31st December, the New China News Agency announced that, at the end of 2009, China became the third largest wind power producer. It has now overtaken Spain to take third place behind the United States and Germany.
Chinese progress is distinctly stronger than worldwide levels. In 2008, the power installed had effectively doubled for the fourth year in a row.
At this pace, China could take first place in the global ranking in less than two years. "In terms of scale and
rhythm, development of wind power in China is absolutely without parallel worldwide", underlined Steve Sawyer , Secretary General of the
Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) in December.
Heavily criticised during the Copenhagen Conference for refusing restrictive measure, China, the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, wants to reach a level of 15% renewable energy by 2020, compared to the 2008 level of 9% in 2008. Currently, coal, which is extremely polluting, still provides 70% of the energy used in China.
It should also be highlighted that the first
wind farm 100% made in China was erected in the North-West of the country at the beginning of December. If its power could be reviewed (3MW compared to 6MW from the best generators), it shows that China will soon be capable of not only providing its growing production but also of flooding the world market.
There remains, however, a size obstacle to this energy progress: the network connection is insufficient. So only 2,000 of the 7,050 MW wind farms put up in Inner Mongolia are linked up to an electric network, as the infrastructures are being installed slowly.
