China's newly installed wind power capacity grows 13% in Q1

Workers with the power supply company in Chuzhou, Anhui province, check the transmission network under the State Grid before it is connected with a local wind power farm. SONG WEIXING / FOR CHINA DAILY

BEIJING - Newly installed wind power capacity in the first quarter reached 5.33 gigawatts, up 13 percent over the same period last year, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA) on Tuesday.

By the end of March, China had 134 gigawatts installed wind power capacity, up 33 percent compared to the figure by March last year, the NEA said.

However, wind-power use was falling due to wastage.

The average usage of wind power in the first three months was 422 hours, 61 less than the same period last year, the NEA said.

Wind power wasting reached 19.2 billion kilowatt hours, an increase of 8.5 billion kilowatt hours compared with the same period last year, the NEA added.