Beijing slashes outlook for offshore wind power by 60%

China now expects to install 60% less offshore wind power by 2015, potentially marking the first time the country will miss one of its goals for renewable energy and dealing a blow to the fledgling industry there, Bloomberg reported, citing estimates from the National Energy Administration. The new estimates of 2,000 megawatts of capacity by 2015 and 10,000 megawatts by 2020 fall far short of the ambition to generate 5,000 megawatts and 30,000 megawatts – enough for 32 million homes – by those same deadlines, respectively. However, offshore turbines represent a fraction of the 90 gigawatts of land-based turbines due to be connected to China’s grid by year’s end, the largest concentration of the technology in the world.