One Quarter of China's Wind Power Still Not Connected to Electricity Grid

We've been long documenting China's rapid rise to the top tiers of wind power, both in manufacturing and installed capacity. Worldwatch's Revolt blog looks into some of those impressive stats and finds that roughly 25% of China's wind power isn't connected to the power grid.

By the end of 2010 China had 41.8 GW of wind power capacity versus 40.2 GM in the United States. But the best estimates show that only 31.1 GW of China's wind power is actually tied into the grid.

This is roughly the same amount that of wind power that wasn't grid-tied back in 2008 and similar causes are behind it:

China's grid-connection problem is twofold. For one, many local grids lack the capacity to absorb wind-generated electricity. Meanwhile, there are limitations in the grids' capacity to transmit power to distant regions. Yet addressing the problem requires more than just a technical fix, and ultimately reveals fundamental challenges in Chinese energy policymaking.

Read more: Revolt