China

China boosts grid-connected capacity by 24%

13 February 2014 by Mao Pengfei

CHINA: China's grid-connected wind power stood at 75.48GW by the end of 2013, up by 24% with 14.06GW newly added capacity, according to China Electricity Council's latest report.

Overall, installed wind capacity in China reached 91.42GW, increasing 16.1GW in 2013, according to the Global Wind Energy Council and Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA).

The figures show around 28% of China's installed capacity is still without a connection to the grid.

Electricity generated by wind power in 2013 was 140.10TWh.

The average turbine's operational period increased 151 hours on 2012 to 2,080 hours, which is a new high since 2005. The rise is largely thanks to the reduction of 2013's curtailment policy.

These figures indicate a recovery of the Chinese market after a gloomy year in 2012.

However, curtailment is still a big problem in China, which lost Chinese wind farms the opportunity to generate 15TWh of electricity in 2013, CWEA said.