Regional investment distribution of the wind power in China and its impacts on wind-generated electricity

Wind power has become one of the fastest growing new energy in China, which has important market prospects and research value. This paper analyses the regional distribution of wind power installed capacity and its characteristics in China by the method of cluster analysis. With the Panel Data of 13 selected provinces from 2004 to 2008, it also analyses the impact factors of China's wind-generated electricity. The results show that the regional distribution of wind power investment basically corresponds to the wind resources distribution, but the Xinjiang region has not been developed effectively: investment in wind power significantly affects the level of wind-generated electricity; wind electricity presents reverse distribution compared to the electricity consumption. Therefore, policies such as overall planning, oversea markets expanding should be applied proactively in China's wind power development. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of RIUDS