China advanced past 50 gigawatts (GW) of on-grid/connected wind power capacity in 2012, and this is expected to grow a further 40% by the end of 2013.
GTM Media Research and Azure International in their China Wind Market Quarterly for the fourth quarter of 2012 said the emerging market country is on target this year to add another 18 GW of installed grid connected wind capacity.
Windmills in China via WikiCommons (Some Rights Reserved)
Some of the underlying strength seen in the Chinese wind market is due to recent government action to help solve some of the domestic wind industry concerns. This included revamping surcharge revenue and pre-appropriating funding this year.
“China’s wind industry retains its leadership position worldwide, whether looking at policy targets, overall installation numbers or innovation,” said co-author of the report Anders Hove.
“Fully understanding the world’s largest wind energy market requires an in-depth understanding of complex issues, and that’s why this report is timely. We need to understand the reasons for interconnection delays, develop an expectation for future curtailment, and look province by province at the cash flow issues created by slow disbursement of renewable energy surcharge funds,” he said.
Meanwhile, based on report projections, China will reach 140 GW of installed capacity by 2015, far exceeding expectations in 2011 of 100 GW.
China Wind Market Quarterly: 4th Quarter 2012 via GTM Research
In 2012 alone, China had nearly 35% of new wind power installations, virtually neck and neck with the United States to take top the spot, according to the Global Wind Energy Council’s 2012 report.
To see just how fast China’s wind energy industry has grown so far this century, we can look back and see that China only had 5.9 GW of installed capacity in 2007. Meanwhile, by 2020, China is expected to have nearly 250 GW of installed capacity. That would represent over 42 times the 2007 installed capacity.
However, rapid growth for China’s wind sector should become more levelled out in the years to come, as the industry should see more linear growth, the report said.
Will China be able to keep up its strength and reach the 250 GW installed capacity mark by the end of the decade? It would not be surprising if that target is reached before the start of 2020. Maybe the only question left to ask is whether it will it happen sooner or later.
Main Source: Greentech Media
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