El crecimiento de la capacidad instalada de la misma energía de China en 2008 fue del 105 por ciento.
Según los expertos del sector, la energía eólica seguirá superando probablemente a la nuclear como la tercera mayor fuente de electricidad de China, después de la energía térmica y la hidroeléctica, hasta el 2020.
La energía eólica representó el 1,5 por ciento de la capacidad instalada total de generación eléctrica de China en 2008, año en que el país se convirtió en el cuarto mayor mercado de energía eólica del mundo.
La III Exposición y Simposio Internacional de Energía Eólica 2009, que se inauguró el pasado miércoles y ha contado con la participación de 237 compañías extranjeras, tiene previsto clausurarse hoy en Shanghai.
China va camino de convertirse en una gran potencia eólica, y para ello basta contemplar la evolución de la potencia eólica instalada:
Año 2000: apenas 346 MW.
2001: 402 MW.
2002: 469 MW.
2003: 567 MW.
2004: 764 MW
2005: 1.260 MW.
2006: 2.604 MW.
2007: 5.912 MW.
2008: 12.210 MW
2009: 20.000 MW (previsto).
Numeros empresas internacionales tienen fábricas en China, como la danesa Vestas, o las españolas Gamesa y Acciona, pero también hay potentes empresas nacionales, como Goldwind de la provincia de Xinjiang. China tiene un enorme potencial eólico.
China implantó la Ley de Energías Renovables en el año 2006 como parte del plan para mejorar sus registros medioambientales. Lo que más necesita en estos momentos es la tecnología para hacer efectiva su determinación de construir un modelo económico limpio y ecológico.
Li Junfeng, subdirector del Instituto de Investigación de Energías, NDRC, indica que "recientemente, el gobierno chino ha establecido muchas políticas preferenciales acerca de las energías renovables. Por ejemplo, el paquete de medidas de estímulo para los 10 sectores más importantes, puesto en marcha por el principal órgano de planificación económica del país, proporciona un firme apoyo a la electricidad eólica y a la energía solar. Por su parte, el Ministerio de Finanzas también ha suministrado subsidios considerables a la generación de energía solar".
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China’s Wind Power to Total 20GW in 2009
China’s installed wind power capacity reached 12.2GW in 2008 and is expected to grow to 20GW in 2009, reports xinhuanet.com from China’s Third International Wind Energy Exhibition & Symposium, held in Shanghai from April 8-10. China produced 78,000 small and medium-sized wind turbines with combined capacity of 72MW in 2008. Nearly 70 companies are involved in on-grid wind turbine manufacturing in China.
Wind power capacity likely to rise 64% this year
Source: Xinhua
04-10-2009 16:10
Installed capacity in China’s wind power sector will grow 64 percent this year to 20 million kilowatts, organizers of the 3rd China (Shanghai) International Wind Energy Exhibition and Symposium 2009 forecast Friday.
Installed capacity grew 105 percent last year.
Chinese industry experts believe that by about 2020, wind power will likely surpass nuclear power as China’s third-largest source of electricity, after thermal and hydro power.
Wind power comprised 1.5 percent of China’s total installed capacity in 2008, when the country became the world’s fourth-largest wind power market.
The three-day event, which attracted 237 overseas companies, is due to conclude Friday in Shanghai.
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2008 Deep Research Report on Global and China Wind Turbine Industry
10.04.2009 07:35:47 Low cost Renewable Government Support help wind energy get rapid development all over the world, especially in China, 3 years annual growth more than 100%. Great demand cute wind turbine shortage and help leading manufacturers Goldwind Sinovel DFSTW join Global Top10; in the coming year, China and US will become the world two engines of global wind energy industry. they drive global wind turbine demand increase rate high to 30%. About China market, wind turbine demand increase rate higher than 80%, 1.0-3.0MW wind turbine become popular, large size turbine will be the development trend in the coming years. Wind turbine average selling price decreasing but keep high become demand and shortage. As competiton and long time development demand, most manufacturers extend their businees in upstream components or downstream wind farms. The whole industry chain manufacturers will become stronger in the future competition.
Low cost Renewable Government Support help wind energy get rapid development all over the world, especially in China, 3 years annual growth more than 100%. Great demand cute wind turbine shortage and help leading manufacturers Goldwind Sinovel DFSTW join Global Top10; in the coming year, China and US will become the world two engines of global wind energy industry. they drive global wind turbine demand increase rate high to 30%. About China market, wind turbine demand increase rate higher than 80%, 1.0-3.0MW wind turbine become popular, large size turbine will be the development trend in the coming years. Wind turbine average selling price decreasing but keep high become demand and shortage. As competiton and long time development demand, most manufacturers extend their businees in upstream components or downstream wind farms. The whole industry chain manufacturers will become stronger in the future competition.
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China
2008 was another year of breathtaking wind energy development in China (excluding Taiwan), as the country’s total installed capacity doubled for the fourth year in a row. New installed capacity totaled 6.3 GW in 2008, a 91% increase over the 2007 market. The country’s cumulative wind power capacity now stands at 12.2 GW, making China the fourth largest wind market in the world.
The 10 GW-Size Wind Base Program
In 2008, the newly-established National Energy Administration highlighted wind energy as a priority for diversifying China’s energy mix, which is currently heavily reliant on coal. The bureau selected six locations from the provinces with the best wind resources: Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Hebei and Jiangsu. Each site will have more than 10 GW of installed capacity by 2020. This largescale scale wind energy deployment is called the 10 GW Size Wind Base Programme (Wind Base). The Wind Base projects will ensure more than 100 GW of installed capacity producing 200 TWh per year by 2020. This is crucial to reach the Chinese government’s National Mid and Long-Term Development Plan of 3% non-hydro renewable electricity production by 2020.
Planning for the six Wind Base sites started in 2008. In August , the first step was taken with an auction for 3,800 MW of wind generating capacity. As of January 2009, the Wind Base projects already have 5,000 MW installed capacity from existing projects, mainly in Gansu and Jiuquan. Other Wind Base projects are also under development: 20 GW at Mengxi (Western Inner Mongolia); 30 GW at Mengdong (Eastern Inner Mongolia); 10 GW in Hebei Province; 20 GW at Xinjiang Hami; and 10 GW in Jiangsu Province, 7 GW of which will be offshore.
Whereas wind projects in Europe are often decentralized and the electricity is consumed locally, the Chinese wind resources are rich in the north west, where the population is sparse and the electricity demand is low. China must build large scale, centralized projects, with high voltage and long distance transmission, and the Wind Base projects are posing huge challenges for transmission and grid construction. In 2008, the State Power Grid Corporation started work on a 750 kV high voltage transmission project in Gansu. The project will transmit the electricity to the east of the country where the electricity demand is high.
Price rationalization
Changes to the pricing of concesion projects
In China, projects of over 50 MW are approved by the NDRC, and concession tendering is one of the most important procedures for project selection. The NDRC carries out tendering procedures for national concession projects, five rounds of which have taken place since 2003. Projects of less than 50 MW are approved by provincial governments, but prices for those projects are checked and approved by the NDRC. The only exception is Guangdong province, which makes its own decisions on prices for wind power. Some of the projects under 50 MW go through the concession process but are not included in the five rounds of national concession tendering.
The aim of the concession scheme has been to encourage a reduction in the price of wind power in China. However, the tariffs offered by winning concessions have been too low to be viable. To remedy this situation, the rules for evaluating bids were modified for the fifth national concession round to discourage unreasonably low bids. The weight of the price in the overall evaluation of the bid has been reduced to 25%, which means that pricing is no longer the foremost criteria to win a bid. The projects which are closest to the average bidding price are more likely to win the tender.
The results of the fifth concession round, which was held in February 2008, showed that the pricing of wind projects improved, but still has not fundamentally changed the situation; i.e., the price is too low for a developer to cover their costs and make a reasonable profit. There is still a need to establish a sound pricing system for wind energy to further encourage the healthy development of the industry.
The pricing of non-concesion projects
For projects that do not go through the concession tendering process, the prices are also approved by the NDRC. In 2008, fixed tariffs were approved for more than 72 projects. The new prices approved are much more realistic, taking into account factors including wind resources, transmission and construction costs.
The Renewable Energy Premium
The Renewable Energy Law in China stipulates that the price difference between the electricity from renewable energy and that from coal fired power plants should be shared across the whole electricity system. To fulfill this objective and to finance the electricity from renewable energy sources, in the implementation regulations of the Renewable Energy Law published in 2006, there is a 0.001 RMB (0.0001 Euro) Renewable Energy Premium added for each kWh of electricity produced, aiming at covering the difference between electricity from coal-fired power plants and electricity from renewable energy.
The Renewable Energy Premium is collected by the government and pooled together as a fund. When the electricity is fed into the grid, renewable energy project developers get paid only the basic tariff, which is the same level as the local coal fire price. But the premium between the coal fire electricity price and the renewable energy price is paid later by the government from this renewable Energy Premium.
Rules on how the Renewable Energy Premium should be reimbursed to the developer and grid companies for the added services to satisfy RE needs were released by the government in 2006-2007. The money has been reimbursed to the renewable energy projects operated after 1 January 2006. The total amount of the fund reached 3 billion RMB (300 million Euro) in 2007. In 2008, this premium was raised to 0.002 RMB (0.0002 Euro).
Grid constraints are the main challenge
The ability of China’s grid system to incorporate windgenerated electricity continued to be the main problem faced by the industry in 2008. Among wind farms currently in operation, a great number have only limited access to the grid. According to the Renewable Energy Law, renewables should be given priority access to the grid, yet the rule is not being followed due to the physical constraints of grid capacity.
In the past, new wind projects were spread throughout the country and close to grid connections. In recent years however, with the boom in wind development, most of the new wind farms are located in north-west China, where the existing grid structure is weak.
In September 2007, the NDRC issued the Renewable Energy Mid and Long Term Development Plan, in which the 2010 target for installed wind capacity was set at 5 GW, and later raised to 10 GW. However, the new installed capacity in 2008 has overshot this target by far, with cumulative capacity by the end of 2008 reaching 12.2 GW. This rapid growth is far ahead of the national plan, which makes it difficult to align grid planning with wind project development.
The variability of wind also poses challenges to grid operation, and China needs to solve the associated technical issues, such as grid dispatching. To ensure stable operation of the grid, there is a need to improve the quality of electricity generated by wind, especially for large scale wind farms.
Grid connection for wind energy requires additional services and therefore increases the operational cost and risks for grid companies, which are state-owned monopolies in China. Without market competition and proper incentives, grid operators have little motivation to expand service to match the rapid development of wind energy.
Policies to stimulate domestic manufacturing
In April 2008, the Chinese Ministry of Finance issued a new regulation on tax refunds for importing large wind turbines (2.5 MW and above) and key components. In this new regulation, the tax revenue for the key components and raw materials for large turbines (2.5 MW and above) will be used for technology innovation and capacity building. The tax rebate is not returned directly to the company, but to the state, which will establish special programs to channel the money back into the wind industry. The effects of this policy are hard to predict at this point, as State Owned Enterprises are the only beneficiaries of this investment.
In August 2008, the Ministry of Finance issued another incentive policy on funding support for the commercialization of wind power generation equipment. According to this regulation, for all the domestic brands (with over 51% Chinese investment) the first 50 wind turbines over 1 MW will be rewarded with RMB 600/kW (60 Euro) from the government. The rule specifies that the wind turbines must be tested and certified by China General Certification (CGC), and must have entered the market, been put into operation and connected to the grid. The regulation further requires that the rewarded turbines must use domestic manufactured components and share the awards proportionate with component manufacturers.
This new policy has two ground-breaking implications. It is the first time that the government gives subsidies to renewable energy manufacturers and the first time that there is a link between a stimulus policy and a testing and certification system. This policy will have a significant impact on the future promotion of China’s domestic industry’s technology innovation, improving competitiveness and building domestic branding in the long run.
Increasingly intensive competition for turbine manufacturers
More than 20 new turbine manufacturers entered the Chinese market in 2008, bringing the total number of manufacturers in China to 70. Of these, 30 companies already have turbines in operation. The increasing number of turbine manufacturers could help ease the supply deficit in the market. However, there is sure to be intensive competition in the market, resulting in consolidation. In the coming years, demand will gradually slow, even with the conservative estimate of 20 GW cumulative installation by 2010 and 100 GW by 2020.
Demand in the decade between 2011-2020 is forecasted to be 80 GW, or about 8 GW per year. The top three manufacturers in China, Goldwind, Sinovel and DEC (Dongfeng Electric), have an annual manufacturing capacity of 4 GW, and the international brands manufacturing in China (Vestas, Suzlon, GE, Gamesa, Nordex and Repower) have a similar capacity. This means that there will be little market share left for the rest of the more than 60 manufacturers, unless the market expands further or they begin to export turbines in large numbers.
The financial crisis does not pose a significant threat to Chinese wind market development
The financial crisis is beginning to have an impact on the global wind market. The growth of global demand is slowing and competition will lower the cost of wind turbines. International turbine manufacturers will therefore increase their promotional efforts in the Chinese market, bringing intense competition between international brands and domestic manufacturers.
Not only does the global financial crisis not pose a substantial threat to the Chinese wind industry, it actually brings new opportunities. Firstly, it will accelerate the consolidation of Chinese wind industry manufacturing through intensive competition. Secondly, the state owned wind power developers, such as HUANENG and Datang HUADIAN, will receive priority access to low interest loans for wind farm construction.
Power generation companies in China had a difficult year in 2008. In the first half of the year the price of coal increased dramatically, while the electricity price was not allowed to rise accordingly, causing 90% of power generation companies to report huge losses by the end of the year. These losses have encouraged power generation companies to begin to invest further in wind power development.
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