China aims for 100 gigawatts of wind power by 2020

China aims for 100 gigawatts of wind power by 2020
mongabay.com
April 29, 2008

China aims to expand its wind power generating capacity to 100,000 megawatts by 2020, more than doubling the current world's installed capacity, according to the Shanghai Daily and The Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog.

The plan — which is five times the previous target — was set forth by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top industry planning body.

"The NDRC has just recently completed an internal meeting to discuss the possibility of increasing wind power capacity to 100,000MW," Shi Pengfei, vice president of Chinese Wind Energy Association, said. "It's not 20,000MW or 30,000MW as previously targeted."

Electricity consumption in China

The Shanghai Daily reported that China's wind capacity could reach as high as 120,000MW (120 gigawatts) by 2020 "if the state reforms a subsidy system to give wind power larger premiums over coal."

China presently has 5,600MW of installed wind capacity. Global wind power currently stands at 94 gigawatts (94,000MW).

China hopes to have 15 percent of its electricity generation coming from renewable sources by 2020. Most of this is expected to come from hydropower and wind since solar energy is still too costly, Anil Kane, president of the World Wind Energy Association, told the Shanghai Daily.

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