The southern Chinese province of Guangdong manufactures products for the whole world – from toothbrushes to DVD players, from shoes to cars. It is among the richest regions of China, yet lack of power generation has been a huge barrier to its economic growth, and until recently blackouts were common. Four years ago, Greenpeace China launched a pilot project called Wind Guangdong to promote wind power in the region and show that Chinese development could be powered by clean, renewable energy.
The wind industry did take off in Guangdong, as it has across the country. Over the past three years, China's wind generation capacity has grown by over 100 per cent per year and it is now the world’s third biggest user of wind power. China is soon expected to become the world’s biggest manufacturer of wind-energy equipment, and Greenpeace predicts that the country’s wind power capacity could reach 122 gigawatts (GW) – equivalent to the capacity of five Three Gorges Dams – by 2020.
