China added 89.7 million kW of power generation capacity last year, boosting the total capacity to 874.07 million kilowatts at the end of 2009, 10.23% more than a year earlier.The country’s power generation capacity is now only second to that of the US
China Knowledge reported that the ministry said that thermal power capacity rose 8.16% year on year to 652.05 million kW, accounting for 74.60% of the country’s total. The ratio was 1.45% less than in 2008.
Hydropower capacity increased 14.01% from a year earlier to 196.79 million kW, accounting for 22.51% of the total. (Part of the Three Gorges dam is seen in our illustration.)
Wind power capacity surged 92.26% to 16.13 million kW last year, and nuclear power capacity stood at 9.08 million kW, with 23.05 million kW of capacity under construction by the end of last year.
Adding windpower and hydropower together gives us about 215 million KW of capacity which is around 25% of the total.
While it is true China’s expanding demands for power will make it difficult to keep this percentage it does show, more clearly than other statistics, that China is very much a leading player in the green power revolution.
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