Isra-Mart srl:China tops wind power league despite grid woes

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Isra-Mart srl news:

China has reportedly overtaken the US as the leading provider of wind power capacity, reaching a total of 41.8GW of installed turbines at the end of last year.

According to news agensy Reuters, Chinese official media reported this week that China installed 16GW of wind turbines in 2010. The figure puts China in pole position in terms of installed capacity, beating the US, which installed 5GW of new capacity last year taking its installed capacity to 40.2 GW.

However, it is unclear how many of China's turbines actually fed energy into the grid with reports suggesting the country's power grids have struggled to cope with the rise in intermittent energy supplies. As such it has been suggested that some of the new turbines installed last year are yet to be connected to the grid.

According to figures from the China Electricity Counci, grid-connected wind power capacity reached just 22.94GW at the end of August last year. However, the government has said it is hoping to boost grid capacity to ensure wind energy output reaches 90GW by 2015.

The news comes after Su Wei, climate change director general at China's National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters the government is planning to impose regional carbon reduction targets, in an effort to meet national 2020 emissions reductions goals.

According to Point Carbon, Wei plans to set out specific targets and policies for individual regions and carbon-intensive industries, adding that the country is examining how it could launch a domestic carbon trading platform.

In related news, Zhang Guobao, the head of China's National Energy Administration confirmed on Saturday that he would retire to be replaced by a deputy chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, Liu Tienan.