A review on wind power industry and corresponding insurance market in China: Current status and challenges

China's wind power industry has achieved tremendous successes in recent years. The country's cumulative installed capacity has exceeded that of America and ranked first in the world. The fast development has also been accompanied by inevitable high risks. Wind turbine accidents are happening with increasing frequency. Since insurance is an effective measure and instrument to control risks, it can guarantee healthy development of the wind power industry. So the fast-growing wind power industry in China is in urgent need of insurance services. However, currently the slow-developing insurance does not match the fast-growing wind power industry. Up to now, there have been few correlative studies on such field. Therefore, based on the problems behind development of China's wind power industry, this paper emphasizes the importance of insurance for China's wind power industry, and also analyzes the challenges that China's wind energy insurance companies have to face. The aim of this paper is to let more experts know the status of both the wind power industry and its corresponding insurance market in China. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.