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China’s Growth in Wind Power Stays Parabolic [Chart]
The Chart of the Week is a weekly feature in Visual Capitalist on Fridays.
It was only five years ago that China passed the United States in cumulative wind power capacity. Since then, the country hasn’t looked back and growth in wind power generation has continued exponentially.
The most recent numbers show that China now has more total wind capacity than the United States, India, and Spain combined. Even more impressive: for the year of 2014, China added 23,196 MW of new installed capacity, which is close to double that of the European Union’s growth in capacity over the same year (11,829 MW).
Why is China so bullish on wind? The answer is that because China is a quickly growing country, more power infrastructure has to be built each year to meet consumption growth. Meanwhile, for developed countries in North America and Europe, tinkering with the power grid happens on a smaller scale as adequate infrastructure already exists.
China’s power mix was not optimal to start with. In 2012, it was estimated that two-thirds of the country’s electricity was generated by coal. Coal will still be a big part of the mix moving forward, but the country is trying to diversify into nuclear as well as wind energy. That’s why wind is now the third most important source of electricity in the nation behind coal and hydro.
The growth in wind is not expected to stop soon. The Gansu Wind Farm Project is currently under construction and highlights China’s thirst for additional wind energy. When completed and operational, it is expected to become the world’s biggest collective windfarm.
