China has embarked on the greatest push for renewable energy the world has ever seen, and a key element involves more than doubling the number of wind turbines in the next six years. PES takes a look at the rise and rise of the world’s next wind superpower.
Already the world’s largest producer of wind power, China plans further massive increases. From a current installed capacity of 75 gigawatts (GW), the aim is to achieve a staggering 200GW by 2020.
By contrast, the European Union countries together have a relatively modest 90GW of installed wind capacity.
The far western province of Xinjiang is one of seven areas designated for wind development. Against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, turbines are massed in their thousands over the frozen desert.
New units are being installed in a frenzy of construction in which the pace of work has been accelerated. Jiang Bo, an engineer with the manufacturer Goldwind, explains: “Seven years ago we could only do one wind turbine in about two days – but our current speed is that we can do two in one day.”
However, integrating this surge in wind power has posed a series of challenges. The windiest regions, such as Xinjiang, tend to be extremely distant from the biggest cities where the electricity is most needed.
And the construction of wind farms has often outstripped the building of the connections needed to link the turbines to the grid.
The grid itself, accustomed to handling the predictable output of power stations burning coal, has struggled to cope with the intermittency of wind. The result has been that some wind farms have been ordered to shut down even on windy days – a process known as curtailment.
