As an important renewable and inexhaustible energy, wind power is conducive to sustainable development. China has rich wind energy resources and favorable conditions for development of wind power. After years of efforts, China gained remarkable achievements in wind power construction. In early June, Shi Lishan, deputy director of the department of new and renewable sources for the National Energy Board introduced the situation for China’s wind power characteristics and development prospects.
Total wind energy reserves of 4.3 billion kilowatts
Q: What is the current status of China’s wind energy resources?
Shi Lishan: China’s rich wind energy resource areas are mainly distributed in the “Three North” (North-east, North, and North-west) regions, the Southeast coast and nearby islands. In addition, the offshore wind energy resources are also very rich.
According to statistics from the latest national survey of wind energy resources, the total wind energy resource reserves from 10 meters above ground was 4.35 billion kilowatts, of which about 300 million kilowatts can be exploited technically. The developable capacity of 10 meters high wind energy resources equals to 21 billion tons of standard coal.
Cumulative installed capacity of wind power ranks fourth in the world
Q: In recent years, what were the characteristics of the wind power construction in China?
Shi Lishan: I think that there were three main characteristics: Firstly, the wind power construction has quickened. By the end of 2002, China’s wind power installed capacity was only 450,000 kilowatts.
With technology advancing and strong support from national industry policy, the annual average growth rate of wind power installed capacity increased more than 70%. By the end of 2008, 239 electric fields and 11,638 wind turbines have been built in 22 provinces and municipalities (not including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), elevating the total installed capacity to 12.17 million kilowatts.
At present, the US, Germany and Spain are the first three among the world’s cumulative installed capacity of wind power. China rose from the fifth in 2007 to the fourth in 2008, occupying a 10% market share.
Secondly, significant headway has been made in the manufacture of wind power equipment. Since 2003, the government has launched five wind power concession projects, combining government support and market mechanisms, which effectively promoted the development of the wind power industry. Now China has basically mastered technology for building large-scale wind turbines and has 70 machine manufacturing enterprises. At the same time, a great many domestic enterprises are undertaking the wind turbine parts and components production.
Thirdly, the environment for wind power development has been formed. In 2006, China implemented “Renewable Energy Law”, establishing the legal status, the basic system and policy framework for renewable energy development. National Development and Reform Commission, National Energy Board, and the Ministry of Finance developed relevant supporting policies, forming a relatively complete supporting policy system for renewable energy development, which is the basis for the development of wind power.
In addition, large enterprises in the field of electricity, coal and petrochemicals aimed at setting up renewable energy companies to develop wind power. After years of practice, China has build up a standard system for wind power construction and management and also formed wind power construction teams with rich experience.
The construction of a number of “wind power Three Gorges"
Q: What problems should be solved in wind power development and what is the plan for future development?
Shi Lishan: Wind power development achievements are significant, but still face some problems as follows. Firstly, wind power has random and intermittent nature; China’s wind power development and construction are relatively concentrated. The installed capacity of single wind farm was very large, and most of which was at the end of the grid or weak area.
The construction of large-scale wind power will have a great influence on the safe operation of the regional power grid, power supply configuration and power delivery. Therefore, it is necessary to step up the research of large-scale wind power grid technology.
Secondly, China’s wind turbine manufacturing is normally of small scale and foreign technology-based, efforts should be made to improve the research and development capabilities of equipment manufacture.
Thirdly, wind power industry still needs national support and encouragement policy in terms of investment, taxation, technology and research. Policy environment for wind power development is waiting to be further improved.
According to China’s “long-term renewable energy development planning” and the current status of wind power development, China wind power will see big development. It is estimated that by 2010, the cumulative wind power installed capacity of the country will reach 30 million kilowatts. At the same time, the initial establishment of a more comprehensive system of wind power industry will be realized.
By 2020, the scale of wind power construction is expected to exceed more than 100 million kilowatts, with a focus based on the wind resource-rich “three north” and Jiangsu coastal areas.
The preliminary plan is to build more than 10 wind power bases of million kilowatts level and 7 wind power bases of ten million kilowatts level in Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Gansu, Xinjiang, and Jiangsu provinces in order to form a number of “wind power Three Gorges.”
