Nov 18 2010
The Jiuquan wind energy base, the largest wind farm, situated in a desert location close to Jiuquan city, in northwest of Gansu Province in China, has announced the completion of its first stage.
According to Wang Jianxin, Jiuquan Development and Reform Commission’s Director, the wind farm comprises more than 3,500 wind turbines with an installed capability to produce 5.16 GW. He added that the currently completed installation process will allow the wind farm to produce 1.15 GW of wind power.
Steve Sawyer, Secretary-General of Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), said that China is expected to overtake the total wind energy production capability of United States and will lead wind power production. He added that the wind power know-how offers the governments all over the world an easy to adopt technology to manage the challenges of power problem and to meet the requirements of the much needed green energy revolution. The GWEC anticipates that the installed wind power generating capacity of China will almost reach ten times of its present wind power generation capability of 25.1 GW by 2020.
A previously issued report by GWEC indicates that world over wind power generation had achieved nearly 16 31% growth to reach 157.9 GW power productions in 2009. During the same period China had achieved 25.1 GW from its 12.1 GW power production potential at the beginning of the year. In the same period the US could add only 10 GW to its growth and reached 35 GW. The report further indicates that in 2010 with more than 600,000 workers employed in wind farm projects, the industry is expected to witness installation of one wind turbine every 30 minutes.