China’s Wind Energy Bonanza

Wind energy generation in China has more than doubled every year since 2005, and massive new wind energy farms under construction will make China the world’s leading wind energy producer by the end of next year, The Guardian reports. The growth of wind power has outstripped even the government’s goals as China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, pushes to produce 15 percent of its electricity from non-carbon sources by 2020. New wind projects are rapidly being built in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang in western China, and other regions. The first phase of a single project now breaking ground in Gansu province will add 3.8 gigawatts to the grid, more than the entire country’s wind capacity two years ago. While coal still provides 70 percent of China’s power, domestic price hikes have forced energy companies to import coal and prompted a search for more homegrown alternatives, such as wind. The secretary general of China’s Renewable Energy Industries Association predicted that wind power might be able to produce as much energy as coal by 2015.