China sees unfulfilled potential in the wind
CAMEL MOUNTAIN, China -- Among the many people with concerns about the enormous wind turbines being built here, count Jing Xiuwan.
"Once the windmills start turning, it will rain much less," says Jing, 56, a farmer. "Everyone is worried."
That's a myth — a common one in China. Yet the Chinese government and industry groups have legitimate worries about a wind power grid that they say has expanded too fast and with too little regulation.
China, the world's third-largest economy, has made green energy a priority.
The country has doubled its capacity for wind-generated power every year for the past four years, and President Hu Jintao pledged last week to turn to more sources of renewable energy in coming years.
However, many wind farms have been built far from populated areas or transmission grids, making their output largely useless for now. The China Electricity Council, a national industry group, says 28% of the country's wind power equipment sat idle at the end of 2008.
China's Cabinet declared last month that it would find ways to curb overcapacity and duplicated construction in the wind sector.
Coal provides 80% of China's electricity and much of its pollution. China's fast economic growth in recent decades has put the country ahead of the USA as the world's leading emitter of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas from coal.
Wind power provides 0.4% of China's electricity supply, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.
That compares with a little more than 1% in the USA, according to the American Wind Energy Association, a national trade group.
Wang Yuxuan, an environmental scientist at Tsinghua University in Beijing, says the potential for wind power in China is virtually limitless.
"In terms of both theory and resources, it is possible for China to meet all its electricity needs by 2030 from wind power," says Wang, part of a team from Tsinghua and Harvard universities that released a report this month on the possibilities for wind-generated electricity.
Related Stories
ABC News Live