Coal Addiction Spells Trouble for Wind Power Producers

(Beijing) – Local governments are undermining the central government's efforts to develop greener sources of electricity by squeezing production quotas for renewables and slapping extra levies on wind companies to prop up ailing coal-fired power plants in their regions.

Governments in the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Xinjiang and in the southwestern province of Yunnan subsidized coal-burning plants and intervened wind power company productions, forcing some wind farms to take almost 60 percent of their turbines offline, the Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA), an industry body, said.