Opportunities and Challenges of Wind Power Generation in China

China's wind power market development is set to continue its growth trend of 2011. The newly added installed capacity will be in the range of 15-18GW and is expected to reach approximately 18GW. By 2015, the installed wind power capacity will reach 100GW. The percentage of decentralized wind power will further increase, but large-scale development and land-based wind power development will still be the focus, while the ratio of decentralized wind power has the potential to reach a maximum of 30%. As power grid corporations continue to improve their ultra-high voltage power transmission lines, intelligent power grids and other infrastructure, the power grids' ability to absorb wind power electricity on a largescale, and the scale of cross-region wind power transmission will increase, with the wind power grid-connection rate also significantly increase. The wind power manufacturing industry has entered a low-profit era; competition will intensify, the market will become more mature, and wind power manufacturers will face greater market challenges. However, the wind power industry's maturity and lowering costs have enhanced wind power's competitiveness compared to traditional energy sources. Wind power has become a highstrength emerging power supply technology and its contribution to China's electricity mix will gradually increase.