China’s Wind Power Industry：
Still a Long Way to Go
The economy of China can not develop so rapidly without energy, not only in quantity, but also in quality. It has been quite long time since we developed at the expense of nonrenewable energy. Facing this resource-consuming and environment-polluting industrial structure, our government put forward the theory of “Scientific Outlook on Development” in which new energy was firmly encouraged to use. Among all the new energy, wind energy draws a lot of attention for its reproducibility, harmlessness and security.
China’s wind energy industry has developed at an amazing speed since 2005.In 2005,China ranked the 10th in the world with a total installed capacity of 1260MW.In 2010, China became the NO.1 in the world with a total installed capacity of 41820MW .The rapid development of wind energy industry reflects Chinese central government’s determination on structural reform. During this period, several wind machine manufacturers seized the growing chance and became top-notch enterprises of China.
However, some critical problems revealed after the five booming years. Now, The industry is stepping into a new epoch . An epoch which is full filled with challenges and opportunities.
In the new epoch, we see the industry is still full of potentials: The experts estimated that China’s total potential installed capacity for wind machine is more than 100000MW. What we have developed is just a piece of that cake. The wind power industry would be spurred as our government made its promise in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The large seven wind power bases of China will bring more business to the manufacturers. All in all, the future of wind power is still bright.
We should also notice that some severe problems exist in the industry. We should exert every effort to solve these problems , or they will ruin the whole industry: The grid-connection is slower that the development of wind power generator. The industry should pay more attention on the quality and technology of the machines. Low Voltage Rid-through Technology is a must .To ensure the quality of the wind machines ,a scientific system on detection and authentication is necessary. We should also learn from the foreign experience and methodologies on management of wind farms. We should invest cautiously in marine wind power and low wind speed zone.
In the new epoch, the industry becomes more stable. The manufacturers of wind machines have to compete in quality and technology. Most of the enterprises are changing their directions: Instead of paying too much attention to capacity, they started to focus on quality. Moreover, They expand their market not only domestically , but also on the sea and internationally.
On July 5th ,2011,Sinovel Wind Group announced that its first 6MW wind machine was produced in Jiangsu Province. Then it became a headline in media. Some media did make comparison proudly between the German wind machine and Chinese wind machine. In my view, they are only comparable in size .But in term of the quality, who knows? Meanwhile, another big wind enterprise –Goldwind Science and Technology is planning to finish the design of 6MW wind machine in 2011, and produce it before June,2012. Now, the majority of the wind machines manufacturers are developing large capacity wind machines in a hurry. Every company want to get the height. The focus in the wind industry will move from the land to the sea. However, the marine wind machines costs more on the hoisting and servicing.
The previous five years was a great achievement to us. In the new epoch, we should move the focus from “speed” to “quality”. The development of the wind industry should be both rapid and strategical. The task of wind power development should be shouldered by all parties: the government, the electrical generation enterprise, the transmission provider, manufactures and all people in this industry,
I sincerely wish the wind industry a successful future. One day ,“made in China” will be considered as a symbol of good quality and advanced technologies. Therefore, the song will be heard all around the nation “ The clouds were driven away by the wind while the electricity were generated into all directions by the wind machines” |
