China wasting its wind power

China, the world’s largest wind power market, has lost US$1.03 billion from misusing this form of renewable energy.

The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) said that 16% of the electricity generated by wind turbines in northern China went unused in 2011, resulting in a loss of US$1.03 billion. This unused wind energy generated electricity came to 12.3 billion kilowatt hours in northern China’s wind farms in 2011.

SERC said that among the causes of this wastage are power grid upgrades that have lagged behind the expansion of wind farms and insufficient transmission capabilities. It also noted that China’s grid operators are struggling to absorb wind power because building transmission lines always takes a longer time than building wind farms.

China had 52.6 GW of installed wind farm capacity connected to the grid this June, and the country aims to increase it to 100 GW by the end of 2015.

Over 85% of China’s installed wind power capacity is located in the provinces and regions of northern China, including Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.

China is expected to implement a nationwide quota system in 2013 that could require grid companies to transmit up to 15% of their power from renewable energy.