China accounted for more than a third of all newly installed onshore wind power capacity last year, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report.

China installed 15.9 gigawatts of onshore turbines in 2012 to be the world’s largest wind market in terms of annual installed capacity, despite an 18 percent decline from a year earlier, the London-based research company said in a report today. The U.S. installed a record 13.2 gigawatts in 2012, 14 percent fewer turbines than China, the report said.

Wind energy has become the Asian nation’s third-biggest energy resource, following coal and hydropower, and generates 2 percent of its total electricity, according to data from China’s State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Inner Mongolia led China in 2012 with 1.7 gigawatts of new capacity, followed by Shandong with 1.4 gigawatts and Hebei with 1.1 gigawatts, BNEF said. The company said 15 gigawatts, accounting for 20 percent of China’s wind capacity, remains unconnected to the grid in the country.

Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. led Guodian United Power Technology Co. and Sinovel Wind Group Co. to supply equipment to the nation last year, said BNEF. China’s largest wind-energydevelopers were China Longyuan Power Group Corp. and Huaneng Renewables Corp.

China will probably install 16.6 gigawatts of wind-power capacity this year and 17 gigawatts to 18 gigawatts in 2014 and 2015, according to the report. At those rates the nation will achieve its end-2015 goal of 100 gigawatts of grid-connected capacity more than a year early, BNEF forecasts.

Copyright 2013 Bloomberg

Lead image: Wind turbines sunset via Shutterstock