Key to reducing China’s emissions may be a breeze, says study

China could reduce its emissions by 30 per cent in the next two decades if it used wind power to supply half its electricity needs, according to a new study.

While the nation’s power demand is forecast to double by 2030, it would be feasibly possible to supply half of the needed capacity through wind power, says a report by a team of environmental scientists from Harvard University and Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

The study estimated the total potential for wind power that could be attained at an affordable cost level. It calculated that 640GW of wind farms could be installed over the next 20 years with an investment of US$900bn at current prices.

Calculations suggest “that wind resources in China could accommodate this target. This will require, however, a commitment by the Chinese government to an aggressive low-carbon energy future”, said the study, which was published yesterday in the journal Science.

Eventually, China could theoretically produce enough wind power to supply the nation’s entire electricity needs, said the research team, which was supported with a grant by the National Science Foundation, a US government agency.

China is spending US$140bn to construct seven large wind farms over the next decade, which will have a combined capacity of 120GW.

However, turbine installations in recent years have not translated into readily accessible green power. It has 12GW of installed capacity, but only about 3GW is connected to the grid, supplying just 0.4 per cent of the nation’s electricity needs. China’s insufficient power infrastructure has been cited as a major contributing factor.

Ma Xuelu, vice-director of the Chinese Wind Energy Association, yesterday told state-run newspaper China Daily that the sector “requires investment in various fields”, including power infrastructure, raw materials, technology and human resources.

He warned that the industry in China tends “to focus mainly on [equipment] manufacturing. Such an imbalance, if not addressed, could greatly undermine the country’s efforts to develop its wind energy sector."