China is now the world's wind power leader

The official figures released by the China Wind Energy Association (CWEA) shows that China has been able to consolidate its position as the global wind power leader in both newly and cumulative installed capacities in 2011. The CWEA said that China’s cumulative wind power installed capacity in 2011 amounted to 62.4 GW, a 39.4% increase year-on-year. On the other hand, the United States, which previously had the highest installed wind capacity in the world, installed 6.8 GW of wind turbines in 2011, reaching a cumulative total of 46.9 GW by the end of the year. The five Chinese provincial regions, which had the highest number of newly installed wind turbines, were Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shandong, Ningxia and Liaoning. (March 23, 2012)