China wind energy capacity could reach 1,000 GW by 2050

China’s wind turbines generating capacity, already the world’s largest, could reach 1,000 gigawatts by 2050, a study prepared by a think tank of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) showed on Wednesday. China had more than 41 GW of wind power capacity at the end of 2010.

The potential capacity in 2050 would reduce the country’s carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 gigatonnes per year, roughly equivalent to the combined carbon dioxide emissions of Germany, France and Italy in 2009, the study from the Energy Research Institute under the NDRC showed. The capacity would generate about 17 percent of China’s electricity output in 2050, compared a 1 percent share now. The International Energy Agency provided technical support for the study.

The National Energy Administration (NEA) announced Tuesday that the country’s electrical power consumption rose 12.2 percent from a year earlier in September.

Power use reached 391.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) in September, the NEA said in a statement on its website. The growth rate was 3.1 percentage points higher than that of August, the statement said. In the first nine months, electricity consumption totaled 3.52 trillion kwh, up 12 percent year-on-year, the statement said.

By industries, the tertiary industry recorded fastest yearly electricity consumption growth of 14 percent in the first nine months with the total consumption hitting 384.4 billion kwh. The primary industry recorded an electricity use of 79.5 billion kwh in the January-September period, up 4.5 percent year-on-year, while the secondary industry used 2.62 trillion kwh, up 12.1 percent.

Residents in urban and rural areas nationwide consumed 428.2 billion kwh of electricity in the first nine months, up 10.6 percent year-on-year, according to the statement. Between January and September, China invested 242.8 billion yuan ($38.11 billion) in power projects. The total included 63.5 billion yuan for hydro power projects, 74.2 billion yuan for thermal power projects, 53.2 billion yuan for nuclear power projects, and 47.7 billion yuan for wind power projects.