China’s wind power capacity continues to grow

2017-01-30
Xinhua

BEIJING — Installed wind power capacity in China continued to grow in 2016, boosting clean energy.

China had 149 million kilowatts of installed wind power capacity as of the end of 2016, with 19.3 million kilowatts added last year, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).

Wind power facilities generated 241 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2016, 4 percent of the country’s total electricity production, compared with 3.3 percent in 2015.

However, close to 50 billion kilowatt-hours of wind power was wasted, up from 33.9 billion kilowatt-hours a year earlier, due to distribution of wind resources and an imperfect grid system.

China’s energy mix is currently dominated by coal.