(Yicai Global) Oct. 17 -- China's government will look to phase out wind power subsidies over the next three to five years and plans to draw up a new development model based on industry experience seen in foreign countries, Liang Zhipeng, deputy director of China's National Energy Administration, said while attending the China Wind Power 2017 Conference yesterday.

Total installed wind power capacity in China has grown three-fold since 2012 to reach 180 million kilowatts, and considerable headway has been made in the development of wind energy technology.

However, domestic wind farms still face several challenges, including uncompetitive pricing, which has increased their reliance on subsidies. The government plans to combat the issue and lower the cost of wind power generation by stimulating technology development and creating market-based mechanisms.

The government will also move away from the currently prevalent centralized power generation models toward distributed wind power systems, similar to those implemented in Europe, with due attention paid to offshore wind energy, the most advanced wind power technology available today, Liang said.