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Wind from the East

Feb 3rd 2011, 18:33 by The Economist online

China leads the windy world

CHINA overtook America as the world leader in wind power in 2010, according to a new annual report by the Global Wind Energy Council. The chart below shows the five countries that make the greatest use of wind energy. Over the past decade, China's installed wind capacity has grown exponentially, from just 0.3GW in 2000 to 42.3GW last year, and now accounts for 22% of the world’s total wind power capacity. In 2010 it installed more turbines than America. The picture for the industry as a whole is less good, though. 2010 was the first year in which less capacity was installed than in the previous year.

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Skier1 wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 2:27 GMT

Are the new turbines in China actually being *used*? It seems like a lot of stuff is being built in China these days but not always being used all that much (e.g. shiny new freeways).

Feb 4th 2011 2:35 GMT

Skier1:

Are you kidding me? The problem with new freeways in China is overcrowding, not whether or not it's being used. In fact the problem is still that they don't have ENOUGH freeways because car ownership is increasing at such an exponential rate.

In terms of renewables development China has already overtaken the United States. I have been to a Chinese windfarm. The energy there is incredible. Many new jobs are created in the process. Things get built in no time and are immediately put into use.

That is not to say China does not take on frivolous development projects (lavish government buildings being one). But in terms of renewable energy there is no question that China is taking a very long-term focus and that the US will lose out. It is 'leap-frogging' from pre-industrialization to post-modernization all in one go.

Renewable energy in general is a great thing.

TheGrimReaper wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 3:10 GMT

Overall, China has a glutton appetite for records and glory. Its leaders are ready to do whatever-it-takes to ensure their country the top rank. They want to best in the economy (GDP), they want to have the first GDP growth rate, they want to build more wind turbines in order to leapfrog America, they want to have the current-account balance higher surplus, they want to go on a buying spree in Europe by purchasing governments bonds ... The list is far too long ... Though Chinese leaders have crafted an economic arsenal capable of vying with any country in the world.

Constructing wind turbines is a very good point, yet wind-powered energy isn't today as efficient as nuclear and remains in the margin. What is sobering is the general trend in the past years for China. The country hadn't invest in wind energies at all and now accounts for 22% total wind power capacity. Such a dazzling growth is literally unbelievable. I only let you imagine the pace of construction and setting-up of thousands of acres of fields dotted with thousands of turbines. That's how China has brilliantly overtaken a host of rivals, notably the USA very recently.

Unfortunately, wind turbines aren't as effective as widespread nuclear plants, which can provide tones of energy quickly and at a lower cost. Wind power seems to be a good alternative, but not a sustainable substitute to existing energies. Moreover, thousands of jobs should have been necessary to come up with such a paramount scheme. Engineering, building and maintenance sector may have hired scores to achieve this whopping performance.
If this insatiable thirst of power and this renewed zealotry for competition remains undiminished, China may one day gulf up its rivals as well as its close partners.

knull wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 3:29 GMT

Germany and Europe in general are still (by a huge margin) leading the renewable energy sector. Just consider that Germany and Spain - tiny countries compared to the US and China - have more wind power installed than each of them.

It's great to see China embracing renewable energy to such an extent - let us hope they continue to do so.
The coal/oil lobby and ideological barriers in the US are still to strong for the US to make a real effort at renewables.

I'd also like to challenge the view that wind power is more expensive than coal or nuclear. There are wind farms in Germany that are able to produce electricity at rates similar to coal power plants.

Never discount that nuclear/coal is enormously subsidized by governments, something which is rarely taken into account. Also, both produce waste that could be very expensive to deal with in the future.

Will@Moor wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 3:48 GMT

@TheGrimReaper

Then you should look at how fast China is embracing also nuclear energy. :)

Will@Moor wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 3:51 GMT

FYI:

* Mainland China has 13 nuclear power reactors in operation, more than 25 under construction, and more about to start construction soon.
* Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world's most advanced, to give more than a ten-fold increase in nuclear capacity to at least 80 GWe by 2020, 200 GWe by 2030, and 400 GWe by 2050.
* China is rapidly becoming self-sufficient in reactor design and construction, as well as other aspects of the fuel cycle.

China has been later than others, not slower.

Vive_chimie wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 3:57 GMT

It's great to see that the installed wind-power capacity is increasing so fast, but could we please have some figures for real production?
42 GW sound like quite a lot of capacity, even for a country as large as China, but how much bang do the Chinese get for their yuan?

CalvinBama wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 4:18 GMT

With this kind of scale we should begin to see more breakthroughs in cost as well as efficiency in wind power

mwb2002 wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 4:19 GMT

This will clearly get worse. Production of a wind turbine requires upwards of 400 pounds of Rare Earth Elements (REEs). China controls 97% of global capacity to mine and produce REEs and have already begun to dramatically reduce exports in favor of domestic consumption. Chinese National Development and Refprm Commission has outlined plans for a massive "Three Gorges in The Air" program to add 125GW of wind power to their grid within ten years.

5HG88AyVTc wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 4:28 GMT

where is the UK on this chart?
Well, I know the answer approximately. Just creeping up to about 4GW, so about one fifth that of Spain.
But just as important is catching up on nuclear - we were once close to being world leaders.

Tenshi28 wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 5:01 GMT

Apparently your copy-paste answer is good to explain all kinds of issues, from monetary policy to renewable energies.

http://www.economist.com/node/17361344/comments?page=2

Please spare us the pain next time.

Michael Dunne wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 5:30 GMT

Well, it is always good to see countries experiementing. One best learns from doing.

Quick question: Is any of the capacity actually able to support base load requirements anywhere?

Otherwise,where is Japan on this list? I recall seeing a number of windmills, and the country has the incentive to develop this form of energy, and maybe right environments in certain places (on the Sea of Japan). Interestingly, most windmills didn't seem to be in operation - the facilities appeared at a standstill.

One Japanese said you can't have them operate in too strong of wind conditions, while another said the facilities were not economical. I am not sure whether this is actually the case but thought to throw that out there.

Interesting the US capacity has spiked up since 2007 - Could that be due to tax incentives and/or stimulus spending?

Spanish pig wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 5:38 GMT

5HG88AyVTc:

"where is the UK on this chart?
Well, I know the answer approximately. Just creeping up to about 4GW, so about one fifth that of Spain."

Please, clarify me something: why don't you say it's about one sixth that of Germany? Is it unexpected that Spain, which is one of the major promoters of green energy in the world, is above the UK? Of course, it's difficult to fight stereotypes in the UK. Even after the crisis, Spain is no more behind. And I don't mean that as a threat. Just realise it.

MassiGa wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 6:03 GMT

How can you compare Spain (population 46,000,000) with China (population 1,338,600,000)? Even the USA, with 308,000,000 people can not be compared, nor Germany.

Savvy610 wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 6:05 GMT

Most of the comments on the articles published on Economist seems to be about whether China is better than USA or USA is better than China. Rather than incriminating each others comment why not hail the good each country is doing and encourage the other to do the same. Our comments are not going to change the way these countries are run so lets support the good things that each of these countries are doing and get our government to follow their pace of development too.

Feb 4th 2011 6:19 GMT

TheGrimReaper What do you mean when you say wind is not as "efficient" or "effective" as nuclear energy?

scalple wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 6:27 GMT

@carefully chosen name and knull:

What he means is that wind power produces less power per buck then every other non-renewable energy source. Furthermore, it's unreliable since wind's are variable.

In fact, virtually every wind power plant in both Europe and the US would shut down tomorrow if the government did not subsidize them. That's b/c they could never hope to compete on their own merit.

J. Kemp wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 7:06 GMT

China outdoes America again.

Isn't the head of China an engineer?

And America's government is head by...lawyers?

Yes, but America's politicians give such great speeches!

One imagines that they will be very much needed to give America's eulogy.

TheGrimReaper wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 8:13 GMT

Well, what I mean is that wind energy may be a great alternative to replace nuclear energy, though governments seem at least very reluctant to phase out their nuclear capacity (e.g. Germany).
Nuclear power remains undoubtedly the mainstream to yield electricity. However, admittedly, renewable energies are hiking up the slope of development much quicker and tend to be a reliable subsitute to nuclear power. The words "effective" and "efficient" weren't the right choice in this case, so thank you for noticing this egregious mistake :)

allenmike wrote:
Feb 4th 2011 8:18 GMT

The European Union's wind energy generation capacity is 84 GW, compared with China's 41,8 and the US's 40,2 in 2010. Please compare like with like. I am sick of reading the sub-tabloid, propagandistic, anti-European comparisons in your so called "newspaper" comparing states - be they Germany or Malta with the US, China or other conglomerate entities with far larger populations.

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