While the US and other countries back away from renewable energy investments, the recent story China blasts through wind energy target, offers evidence that China has put the pedal to the metal:
China’s wind power industry, dominated by the ‘big five’ state-owned electric power companies, increased the country’s total installed wind power capacity to approximately 12.8GW by the end of 2008, according to a 5 January report from industry group China Electricity Council (CEC), a 127% increase over 2007.
The explosive growth, widely projected by observers, was driven by an 88.10% year-on-year increase in capital investment, said the report.
The increase reflects the success of China’s policies to promote renewable energy, which include the mandated target of 10GW by 2010 and a renewable portfolio standard that requires “non-hydro renewables” to account for 3% of the installed capacity of large power companies by 2010, and 8% by 2020.