China blows hard to amp up wind capacity

Is China finally getting affected by environmental pressure?

In what may seem like a timely response to pressure from green activists to stop building coal-powered plants, China is revealed to be aggressively boosting its wind power capacity three times its current size come 2030.

China has the highest wind power globally by far, accounting for a third of cumulative wind power capacity worldwide in 2015, followed by the US with 17% of the global share.

Aswani Srivatsava, GlobalData’s Analyst covering Power, says supportive government policies that include an attractive concessional program and the availability of low-cost financing from government banks are the main reasons for the success of the Chinese wind power market.

Srivatsava comments further, “China’s quick adoption of wind power can be attributed to a wider global trend driven by depleting fossil fuel reserves, the declining cost of wind power generation and a growing sensitivity towards environmental issues."

Annual wind power installations may not be as high over the next decade as in previous years, as the CAGR of installed capacity for wind was 24.4% between 2006 and 2015, but the market is still expected to be very strong, with average annual installations to 2030 being in the range of 21-22 GW.