Exhibition Special: The world's wind power industry gathers in Beijing

A rousing performance of traditional drums raised the curtain on Nov 15 for this year's China Wind Power Conference and Exhibition.

The three-day event hosted by leading associations and institutes has attracted some 30,000 professionals and other participants from 40 countries.

More than 400 companies from 20 countries and regions have booths displaying their latest wind power products and technologies at the 50,000-square-meter exhibition hall.

"As an important renewable clean energy, wind power has witnessed booming worldwide growth," said Liu Qi, vice-minister of the National Energy Administration, in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

"More than 70 countries had commercial wind power plants with total installed capacity reaching 238 million kilowatts by the end of 2011," he noted.

"China leads the world in installed wind power capacity. By the end of this year, its total will exceed 60 million kilowatts, the country's third-largest source of energy."

But tapping into the existing power grid is the challenge faced by China's wind power industry, according to Liu.

"Promoting the industry's sustainable development is complex and will surely take time," he continued. "Efforts in the future will focus on strengthening China's wind power system to create a larger market and on improvements in policies and laws."

Liu said the energy administration will help Chinese wind power companies develop more international relationships to enhance their innovation capabilities.

Klaus Rave, chairman of the Global Wind Energy Council, noted that the installed capacity by the world's wind power industry has grown at about 25 percent annually over the past 15 years.

"It is true that the industry's development is hindered by many negative factors such as the global economic slowdown, oversupply and the European debt crisis.

"Even so, it has still maintained the fastest growth in the entire power industry and will continue to grow," he said.

"Training and qualifications for service and maintenance people is one of the biggest challenges in China's wind power industry," Rave told China Daily.

"Every megawatt installed requires 1.5 people to do service and maintenance. If you install 18,000 megawatts per year, that means, 24,000 people need to be qualified every single year to keep those turbines running," he said, noting those professionals are crucial if China wants the turbines run for 20 years and longer.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn