The figures were revealed by the country's National Energy Bureau (NEB). By the end of 2011, China had 47GW wind turbines connected to the grid, up 51.6% from the 31GW capacity in 2010.
Qin Haiyan, secretary general of the China Wind Energy Association (CWEA), estimated China’s newly added wind-power installed capacity was 20.66GW in 2011, posting a higher growth compared to that in 2010.
It took China's total installed capacity at the end of 2011 to 65GW. Qin said this was a preliminary figure and will be modified at a later date.
It is estimated that China generated 89.4 billion kWh wind power in 2011, up 78% compared to the 50.1 billion kWh in 2010. It accounted for 0.5% of China’s total energy consumption.
The increase in wind-power generation showed a slowdown in growth compared to the 81.4% year-on-year increase in 2010, said Shi Lishan, deputy director of the new and renewable energy department of NEB.
Industry experts believe China, in the course of controlling the wind-turbine installation rate, must exert greater efforts to solve grid-access problems. China has recently issued the second batch of wind-power projects for 2011-2015, totalling 15-18GW, said Liu Tienan, minister of NEB.
The first batch of wind-power projects is 25.83GW for 2011-2015, announced in August 2011. NEB said it would not approve any wind-power projects that are not listed among these.
Shi said the NEB is considering expanding the power grid network further.
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