In terms of percentage, China is building less from xwind. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
And less than it could and should, if this report is to be believed:
Global Wind Energy Council - GWEC: China Wind Power Report
If the policy environment could be further improved, the installed capacity of wind energy could reach 80GW by 2020, accounting for 7% of installed capacity. However, if the Chinese government could give full policy support to wind power, then the installed capacity of wind energy could exceed 120GW by 2020, accounting for up to 10% of the total installed capacity of the country.
Although you may scoff at the following report's claim that China could well be on its way to blowing the U.S. out of the water when it comes to harnessing wind energy, hopefully it is on to something when it describes what apparently amounts to a recent "gold rush" towards wind energy in China:
U.S., China lead way in tapping wind power - CNN.com
Like their American counterparts, Chinese tycoons are increasingly directing their investment into renewable power. Zhu Yuguo, ranks at 102 on the Forbes China Rich List, with a personal fortune of 5.71 billion Yuan and has invested heavily in the wind power industry. Steve Sawyer of the Global Wind Energy Council said: "China's wind energy market is unrecognizable from two years ago." "It is huge, huge, huge. But it is not realized yet in the outside world," Sawyer said in an interview with London's Guardian newspaper. China's wind generation has increased by more than 100 percent per year since 2005...
Like their American counterparts, Chinese tycoons are increasingly directing their investment into renewable power.
Zhu Yuguo, ranks at 102 on the Forbes China Rich List, with a personal fortune of 5.71 billion Yuan and has invested heavily in the wind power industry.
Steve Sawyer of the Global Wind Energy Council said: "China's wind energy market is unrecognizable from two years ago."
"It is huge, huge, huge. But it is not realized yet in the outside world," Sawyer said in an interview with London's Guardian newspaper.
China's wind generation has increased by more than 100 percent per year since 2005...
In particular,
In a paper last month, [Junfeng Li of the China Renewable Energy Industries Association] wrote: "China is witnessing the start of a golden age of wind power development and the magnitude of the growth has caught policymakers off guard.
If so, maybe these policymakers will be pushed by the greed of Chinese "wind tycoons" (among others) to "give full policy support to wind power", thereby making 122GW by 2020 attainable, as recommended in the Global Wind Energy Council report. Cynicism is intellectual treason.
China's needs are much bigger, but the wind installations are not (yet). If that proportion changes, then China will be able to make more substantive claims about its wind industry. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
China is also importing western greed, which has caused all manner of overblown assumptions about the industry there. From Chinese officials to the manufacturers themselves, the industry will have to focus on performance.
In the US, turbine performance is off some 4% from that achieved by the same machines in Europe. Most of this is due to the lack of infrastructure, where the US still needs to build up its cadre of trained and experienced service technicians and spare parts stores. China will need several years minimum to achieve the equivalent.
It will take a bit longer for Chinese technology to achieve European standards. I don't believe the industry is yet aware of how serious this problem might be. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
My example is from my tangential view from the broadcast business. They have gone from extremely limited capabilities, perhaps zero capability to make a contribution 10 years ago, to the ability to understand and contribute to a huge undertaking at the Olympics.
They are still buying in from the west and have a number of western advisors, but they will not be embarrassing themselves next week in an extremely complex undertaking.
Usually, after every Olympics there is a huge glut of equipment and the market crashes in the host country for all the used gear around. China will suck it up and just keep creating more since they have so much of the country still to bring up to standards...and now they can do it with their own people on their own time.
Point being, apres-Olympics, they will release a lot of talent and focus and energy on other things...and since the US is no longer capable of maintaining its willing addict status, they will focus much of that inward. Given the exploding impact of energy costs, I'd guess a lot of focus will go to alternative energy sources.
Doesn't 2020 seem like a long way away? Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
