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10:07, 11 May 2011 ===China===
According to the third National Wind Energy Resources
Census, China’s total exploitable capacity for both land-based
and offshore wind energy is around 700-1,200 GW.
Compared to the other leading global wind power markets,
China’s wind resources are closest to that of the United
States, and greatly exceed resources in India, Germany or
Spain.
<br>'''Market Developments in 2010'''
<br>Due to varied wind resources across China and differing
technical and economic conditions, wind power development
to date has been focused on a few regions and provinces,
including: Inner Mongolia, the Northwest, the Northeast,
Hebei Province, the Southeast coast and offshore islands.
<br>China’s wind market doubled every year between 2006 and
2009 in terms of total installed capacity, and it has been the
largest annual market since 2009. In 2010, China overtook the United States as the country with the most installed wind
energy capacity by adding 16,500 MW* over the course of
the year, a 64% increase on 2009 in terms of cumulative
capacity, reaching 42.3 GW in total.
<br>According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the growth in
installed capacity was driven by a record level of investment
in wind power in China, which exceeded USD 20 billion in
2009. In the third quarter of 2010, China’s investment in new
wind power projects accounted for half of the global total.
In addition, the Chinese government report “Development
Planning of New Energy Industry” calculated that the
cumulative installed capacity of China’s wind power will
reach 200 GW by 2020 and generate 440 TWh of electricity
annually, creating more than RMB 250 billion (EUR 28 bn /
USD 38 bn) in revenue.
[[Image:China_Capacity.JPG|thumb|centre|1000px|Total Installed Capacity for China]]
<br>'''Chinese Wind Power Sector'''
<br>2010 was also an important year for Chinese wind turbine
manufacturers, as four companies, including Sinovel,
Goldwind, UnitedPower and Dongfang Electric, are part of
the world's top ten largest wind turbine manufacturers, and
are beginning to expand into overseas markets.
Driven by global development trends, Chinese firms,
including Sinovel, Goldwind, XEMC, Shanghai Electric Group
and Mingyang, have entered the competition to manufacture
wind turbines of 5 MW or more.
<br>China’s wind power generation market is mainly shared
among the ’Big Five’ power producers and several other
major state-owned enterprises. These firms account for more
than 80% of the total wind power market. The largest wind
power operators, Guodian (Longyuan Electric Group), Datang
and Huaneng expanded their capacity by 1-2 GW each during
the year, while Huadian, Guohua and China Guangdong
Nuclear Power are following close behind. Most of the local
state-owned non-energy enterprises, as well as foreignowned
and private enterprises have retreated from the
market. Access to finance is generally not a problem for wind
power projects.
<br>'''The Renewable Energy Law and the Chinese Feed In Tariff'''
<br>The breathtaking growth of the Chinese wind energy industry
has been driven primarily by national renewable energy
policies. The first Renewable Energy Law entered into force in
2006, and gave huge momentum to the development of
renewable energy. In 2007, the first implementation rules for
the law emerged, giving further impetus to wind energy
development. In addition, the “Medium and Long-term
Development Plan for Renewable Energy in China” from 2007
set out the government’s long term commitment and put
forward national renewable energy targets, policies and
measures for implementation, including a mandatory market
share of 1% of non-hydro renewable energy in the total
electricity mix by 2010 and 3% by 2020.
<br>In 2009, the Renewable Energy Law was amended to
introduce a requirement for grid operators to purchase a
certain fixed amount of renewable energy. The amendment
also requires grid companies to absorb the full amount of
renewable power produced, also giving them the option of
applying for subsidies from a new “Renewable Energy Fund”
to cover the extra cost related to integrating renewable
power if necessary.
<br>The breathtaking growth of the Chinese wind energy industry
has been driven primarily by national renewable energy
policies. The first Renewable Energy Law entered into force in
2006, and gave huge momentum to the development of
renewable energy. In 2007, the first implementation rules for
the law emerged, giving further impetus to wind energy
development. In addition, the “Medium and Long-term
Development Plan for Renewable Energy in China” from 2007
set out the government’s long term commitment and put
forward national renewable energy targets, policies and
measures for implementation, including a mandatory market
share of 1% of non-hydro renewable energy in the total
electricity mix by 2010 and 3% by 2020.
In 2009, the Renewable Energy Law was amended to
introduce a requirement for grid operators to purchase a
certain fixed amount of renewable energy. The amendment
also requires grid companies to absorb the full amount of
renewable power produced, also giving them the option of
applying for subsidies from a new “Renewable Energy Fund”
to cover the extra cost related to integrating renewable
power if necessary.
<br>'''Grid Connection Problem'''
<br>The rapid development of wind power in China has put
unprecedented strain on the country’s electricity grid
infrastructure. This has become the biggest problem for the
future development of wind power in the country, as some
projects have to wait for several months before being
connected to the national grid.
<br>There are reports that a large share of China’s wind power
capacity is not grid connected, but this is based on a
fundamental misunderstanding, which has its source in the
methodology used for calculating installed capacity. The
Chinese Federation of Power Generation, which provides
China’s energy statistics, only counts wind farms as operational from the moment that the last turbine of a
project has become grid-connected. However, in reality, most
of the installed wind turbines of a project are connected to
the grid and generating power much earlier. This explains the
much reported “gap” between installation and grid
connection which is often reported from China. In other
markets, it is common practice to include all turbines that are
grid connected, whether or not they constitute a completed
wind farm.
<br>Due to a lack of incentives, Chinese grid companies have
been reluctant to accept large amounts of wind power into
their systems. However, they have recently reached an
agreement to connect 80 GW of wind power by 2015 and
150 GW by 2020. According to figures by the State Grid, at
the end of 2010, 40 billion RMB (EUR 4.5 bn / USD 6.1 bn)
had been invested to facilitate wind power integration into
the national power grid.
<br>'''Outlook 2011 & Beyond'''
<br>Despite its rapid and seemingly unhampered expansion, the
Chinese wind power sector continues to face significant
challenges, including issues surrounding grid access and
integration, reliability of turbines and a coherent strategy for
developing China’s offshore wind resource. These issues will
be prominent during discussions around the twelfth Five-Year
Plan, which will be passed in March 2011. According to the
draft plan, this is expected to reflect the Chinese
government’s continuous and reinforced commitment to
wind power development, with national wind energy targets
of 90 GW for 2015 and 200 GW for 2020.