Photo: The wind turbines in Ninglang Yi Autonomous County, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, southwest China - April 18, 2020 

China is continuing to lead the world in installed wind power capacity thanks to the country's continued investment in the industry, according to new data from the National Energy Administration.

China's newly installed wind power capacity exceeded 10 million kilowatts during the first eight months of 2020, bringing the total domestic installed capacity to over 220 million kilowatts, the highest worldwide, the data shows.

Experts say thanks to the urgent demand for low-carbon transformation, there is tremendous development opportunities for the wind power market in China.

"China aims to achieve a peak in carbon emissions by 2030 and realize a net zero carbon footprint by 2060, which requires the total installed wind power capacity to stand at over two billion kilowatts. That will bring more opportunities to wind power equipment manufacturers and accelerate the development of wind power technologies and operations," said Zhou Dadi, Executive Vice Chairman of the China Energy Research Society.

The National Energy Administration says the country's wind power generation in the January-August period increased by 14.5 percent year on year, with the utilization rate of wind power reaching 97 percent, up one percentage point from a year ago. Meanwhile, more than 80 billion yuan (about 12 billion U.S. dollars) was invested in newly installed wind power capacity from January to August.

Officials have pledged continued efforts to develop the wind power industry.

"We are drafting the 14th Five-Year Plan for renewable energy development. In terms of wind power, greater efforts will be made to promote the large-scale development of wind energy," said Ren Yuzhi, director of the New and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration at the opening ceremony of an industry event on Wednesday.