BEIJING (Reuters) - China has the world’s highest wind power capacity after adding 62 percent or 16 gigawatts (GW) in new capacity last year, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

The country’s total installed wind power capacity reached 41.8 GW at the end of last year, the report said, citing Li Junfeng, secretary general of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

Installed wind capacity in the United States increased by about 5 GW to 40.2 GW at the end of 2010, the report said, citing data from the Global Wind Energy Council.

The report did not say how much of Chinese capacity was able to access power transmission and distribution networks.

Wind power capacity connected to grid networks totaled 22.94 GW at the end of August last year, according to the China Electricity Council.

Some Chinese wind farms have been working far below capacity as local grid capacity was unable to accommodate the rising number of intermittent energy sources. Some wind turbines have stood idle from day one because of a lack of grid access.

China is considering ways to ensure grid connections for output generated from planned wind power capacity of 90 GW by 2015, China’s National Energy Administration has said.

China would start building the second-phase of the 5 GW Jiuquan wind power project in Gansu province, the 2 GW Hami wind power project in Xinjiang, a 2 GW Kailu project in Inner Mongolia and the 1.5 GW Tongyu project in Jilin province this year, the Xinhua report said.