Reuters
BEIJING, June 24 China is lagging far behind its target to boost the country's offshore wind power capacity due to technical problems and high costs, which in the absence of more state subsidies could dent its plans to install 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2020, developers said.
China is the world's top generator of electricity from wind turbines, with 145 GW of installed capacity, but most of this is onshore. The push to expand offshore has been driven by the fact that many of its major economic hubs are near the coast.
The country's first offshore project, the 102-megawatts (MW) Donghai Bridge Wind farm, was built eight years ago in Shanghai. Development has, however, slowed since then with a total capacity of only 1 GW being installed by 2015, versus a target of 5 GW, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.
"We hold a conservative view on the 2020 target," given losses from the target miss, but are positive that China will step up investment, said Wang Wen, spokeswoman of China's second largest offshore wind turbine producer, Sinovel.
