China doubles 2010 wind power capacity target

Interfax China reported that China's National Development and Reform Commission released its renewable energy development plan for the 2006 to 2010 period in which it doubled its prior wind power generating capacity target for 2010.

According to the plan, by 2010 China will have a total wind power generating capacity of 10,000 megawatts. In the renewable energy development plan for the 2006 to 2020 periods it released last year, the target for 2010 was set at just 5,000 megawatts.

Mr Shi Pengfei vice director of Chinese Wind Energy Association told Interfax that the CEC figure includes only wind farms which have been hooked up to power grids. He said he was also optimistic that the country would be able to hit its new 2010 target.

Mr Shi said "The government hopes that non hydropower renewable energy projects can contribute 40 million megawatt hours of electricity of the country's total electricity generation in 2010. As biomass power capacity is growing relatively slowly, wind power will have to reach about 20,000 megawatts in order to hit that target."

Mr Shi said when asked by Interfax to what extent that target might change, he was not privy to internal decisions in the NDRC, but that China's plan to see 200 million megawatt hours of electricity generated by non hydropower renewable energy projects by 2020 would indicate a need for roughly 100,000 megawatts of wind power capacity by that time.

The new plan also said that by 2010 the country will see around 30 large wind farms built and five large wind power bases built. The country will also begin preparations to build an extremely large wind power base with over 10,000 megawatts of installed capacity in northwestern China's Gansu Province, one in the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and one offshore base near the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu and its neighboring municipality, Shanghai.

In addition, to ensure that the ambitious targets can be met, the NDRC also said it wants to see domestic wind turbine manufacturing capacity reach 5,000 megawatts by 2010, and enough components for turbines to generate 8,000 megawatts. Furthermore, the government is pushing the industry to be able to manufacture wind turbines with a capacity above 1.5 megawatts, and will start to develop 3 megawatt offshore wind turbines.