Guest editorial: special issue on wind power technologies

Due to global concerns about environmental pollution and potential fossil energy shortage, wind energy has become a significant clean energy for electricity generation systems all over the world. In China the total installed capacity of wind power has been over 70 GW in 2012, which makes China become the country with the largest wind power installation capacity worldwide. According to the official plan of Chinese government, the installed capacity of wind power in China is expected to be 150 and 200 GW in 2015 and 2020, respectively. The report from the Global Wind Energy Council has also shown that the total installed capacity of wind power in the US has reached to 60 GW in 2012. In Europe, the European Commission published its Communication “Investing in the Development of Low Carbon Technologies (SET-Plan)” in October 2009, stating that wind power would be “capable of contributing up to 20 % of EU electricity by 2020 and as much as 33 % by 2030”.