BEIJING — China has scrapped restrictions on the use of foreign parts in wind power turbines, state media reported, as the nation seeks access to more advanced technology to meet its clean energy targets.
The decision by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) means wind farms in China no longer have to source at least 70 percent of turbine parts from the domestic market, the China Business News said Monday.
The restrictions were scrapped late last year but were not announced publicly, the newspaper said.
The move would help the "development of the country's wind power industry" and establish "an open market of rational competition," the report said, citing a statement sent to local governments by the NDRC, the country's top economic planning agency.
If the limit was kept in place it would "hold up China's drive for more advanced wind power technology," it said.
Foreign companies had around 75 percent of China's wind turbine market before the cap was introduced in 2005, the Global Times said Tuesday. That share stood at 25 percent in 2008.
China's installed wind power capacity was forecast to reach 20 gigawatts -- out of a total power capacity of 860 gigawatts -- by the end of 2009, Xinhua news agency reported last month, compared with 12.15 gigawatts at the end of 2008.
That would lift China to surpass Spain and become the world's third biggest wind power producer after the United States and Germany, the report said.
China, which relies on coal for more than 70 percent of its energy, is the world's largest emitter of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
But it has set a target of generating 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources -- mainly wind and water -- by 2020.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
