Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

China Widens Wind Power Lead Over US

Renewable Energy World: China installed almost three times more wind power than the U.S. last year, continuing its clean-energy investment blitz to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase air quality.

China led new global wind-power installations with 23.3 GW, compared with 8.2 GW in second-place U.S., according to a report published Friday by the Global Wind Energy Council. About 54.6 GW of new turbines were installed globally, raising total capacity to about 487 GW worldwide.

Even as China races ahead of other countries in terms of installed wind capacity, its turbines aren’t producing electricity at the same rate because of inadequate transmission infrastructure. Even with more than double the installed capacity as the U.S., China generated only 241 TWh of wind power compared with 224 TWh, according to data from China’s National Energy Administration and the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing generation over 12-months ending in the fourth quarter.

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