Swedish wind projects in China now bigger than entire Swedish wind power sector, carbon credit trader said.
Swedish carbon credit trader Tricorona said Wednesday that its installed capacity of wind power plants in China and India has surpassed 2,000 MW. That’s more than the entire installed wind power capacity in Sweden, the 15th biggest wind nation in the world.
“Today we have some 20 wind power projects running in China and we’re continuing to develop new projects. In the next few days seven new projects will be launched in China”, Per Egstam, head of voluntary offsetting at Tricorona, told Teknik360.
“Tricorona is probably the biggest player in China”, he added.
China’s new Five Year Plan (2011-2015) clearly wants to drive the development of green technologies and products to meet the growing demand for ecological solutions.
“There is an increasing interest for Swedish cleantech solutions in China” Mats Bergman, Trade Commissioner at the Swedish Trade Council in China, told The Swedish Wire last week. “Sweden is recognized in China for having innovative solutions in this are”.
Last month Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping met with visiting Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf. The two sides vowed to advance bilateral relations to a higher level especially in fields such as technological innovation.
Tricorona is one of the largest developers of U.N.-backed clean-energy projects. All its financing of wind power projects has been made possible by the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.
“The rapid development of the Chinese wind power sector is a shining example of what CDM is all about: a huge increase in the production of renewable energy, where it has the biggest impact on the climate”, said Niels von Zweigbergk, CEO at Tricorona.
The Swedish carbon credit trader, which was recently bought by Britain’s Barclays bank, said that the private sector has an important role to play in cutting carbon emissions on a large scale.
“Wind is a fantastic energy source, and our customers are keen to support wind power as a way of reducing their emissions”, said Per Egstam. “By choosing to build wind plants in developing countries, we achieve emissions reductions over and above those that Europe is already committed to”.
