China has surpassed the U.S. to become the country with the largest amount of wind power connected to its electricity grids, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said on its website Thursday, citing State Grid Corp.
China has surpassed the U.S. to become the country with the largest amount of wind power connected to its electricity grids, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said on its website Thursday, citing State Grid Corp.

As of June, the state-run company had connected a total 50.26 gigawatts of wind power to its grid, the SASAC said.

China now has a total of 52.58 gigawatts of wind power connected to its two grid companies, the SASAC said.

The statement didn't mention the figure for U.S. connected wind power.

State Grid Corp., China 's largest power transmission and distribution company, has spent 45.8 billion yuan ($7.19 billion) since 2006 on wind-power infrastructure projects that span 25,300 kilometers and include 420 power-transmission stations, the SASAC said.

"It took China five and a half years to develop wind-power capacity, a progress that has taken the U.S. and Europe 15 years to finish," Shu Yinbiao, deputy general manager of State Grid Corp., said Wednesday in a separate statement.

China 's wind-power capacity has grown to 50 gigawatts from 2 gigawatts in 2006, he said.

The nation's installed capacity for wind power will reach 100 gigawatts by 2015 and 200 gigawatts by 2020, Mr. Shu said.

Still, a lack of wind-power connections to the grid has led to wasted power, which has cut into the profits of state-run power producers.

The country lost 12.3 billion kilowatt hours of wind power in 2011, comprising 16% of total wind-power output in its northern provinces , because of the lack of connections, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission said earlier this month. The commission added that 86.8% of China 's wind power comes from its northern areas in 2011.

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