The Nature of Wind Energy

Globally

At the end of 2006, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 74,223 megawatts; although it currently produces less than 1% of world-wide electricity use, it accounts for approximately 18% of electricity use in Denmark, 9% in Spain, and 7% in Germany.

Globally, wind power generation more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006.The global wind turbine industry is comprised of about a dozen major firms with annual revenues of about of $100M per year. The Danish wind turbine industry is larger than their fishing and agricultural industries combined.

Wind Energy In China

“China has an abundant wind energy reserve which could be vital to properly solve the country's energy issues” - Greenpeace said in a research report jointly issued by the organization and Europe Wind Energy Association and China Renewable Industry Association.

The report, named "Wind Force 12", predicted that China's wind energy reserve would surpass the total amount of China's current power generation, as well as that in the future decades.

Furthermore, in the year of 2020, China's electricity generated by wind energy could possibly reach 14 percent of the global wind energy output, the report forecasts. Source
Driving the push to wind power is a 2006 declaration by the government that the country should invest more in renewable energy, and should eventually have 30,000 megawatts of wind power installed by 2020. (The U.S. is projected to have 50,000 megawatts installed by then, up from 11,000 megawatts currently.)

China is not a party to the Kyoto treaty, but its leaders have recognized that its heavy reliance on a single energy source - coal - is both dirty and dangerous.

Pollution in Chinese cities, partly caused by the burning of coal, is leading to serious public health concerns and an international image problem ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.