IEEE Power Engineering Review

Approximately 345 MW of wind power generating capacity has been installed in China, The Tenth Five-Year Plan calls for a nearly five-fold increase in such wind power capacity in China by the year 2005. The country has abundant wind resources, and the environmental benefits of utilizing this renewable resource are likely to be considerable. In order to spur its development, a wind resource concession (WRC) approach designed to attract more private sector financing into this power generation alternative has been proposed, and a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project has been designed to evaluate such an approach. Two reports have now been completed: the first by Timothy Brennand of the University of East Anglia in the UK, and a second by Weidou Ni of Tsinghua University in China. Work is continuing on this project, however, and it is anticipated that a final UNDP report will be completed later in 2002. This article summarizes progress to date and outlines the current status of the WRC approach.