Strike Out the Plan of Developing Chinese Pattern Wind Power Generation Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 59–63 1876–6102 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2011.03.011 IACEED2010 Strike Out the Plan of Developing Chinese Pattern Wind Power Generation WANG Hepinga, LUO Weib*, WUN Yunnaa, a,b North China Electricity Power University, No.2, Beinong Road, Huilongguan, Changping District, Beijing and 102206, China Abstract Top ics on energy crises, environment p rotection have app eared in international confer ence time and again , usage of renewable ener gy is a p op ular subject , and wind p ower gen eration is the industry with relatively low cost and mature technology , which is dev elop ed by many governments as an imp ortant industry . The article first introduces current situation of China’s wind p ower generation briefly , and then describes its own features and p roblems differing from other countries in the world in detail. Finally , we p ut forward a p rop osal to develop wind p ower gen eration in Chinese p attern way , and meanwhile we give some advices and methods. Keywords: wind power generat ion; China pattern; renewable energy; advice; specific condit ions 1. Introduction With the rapid develop ment of world economy , industrialization level is higher and higher, meanwh ile global environment degradation and non -renewab le energy c risis have beco me worldwide prob le ms. In recent years, the subject on developing new energy has drawn attention of many govern ments. In 2009, our country promised to the international society that the ratio of non-fossil fue ls to prima ry energy consumption would reach 15% in 2020, and per unit of GDP carbon e missions of 2020 would decrease by 40%~45% compared to that of 2005. China still takes coal as ma in consumer of energy because of historica l and environmental factors, and this consume structure could speak for itself about how large pressure it makes on environ ment. It’s to optimize energy structure, improve energy effic iency, and to develop renewab le energy that becomes * Corresponding aut hor. Tel.: +0-138-1-086-7419. E-m ail address: st efanie.d116@yahoo.com.cn Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of RIUDS Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ 60 Wang Heping et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 59–63 important and indispensable components of sustainable development strategy. As bulk of energy consumption, electric ity industry plays an important role in new energy development . W ind power fie ld has a relatively mature technology and low cost and has the highest researching and developing value. 2. Current situation of wind power in China China has rich wind resource. According to a detailed survey, 1.4billion KWH wind power fac ility can be installed on land in China, and the total nu mber of resources can reach 2b illion KW H in cons ideration of the maritime part. Wind power develop ment is like a blue streak in China [1]. The early 90s of last century was the promotion stage when the wind turbines and installed capacity continuously increase d. Recently, the development is surprisingly quick with installed capacity growing by the rate of more than 100% . In 2007, we installed 6050MW in total and surpassed Denma rk to be the fifth largest one in the world, and the number of 2008 is 12153MW which surpass ed India, and the number reached 2580 5.3MW before the end of 2009. As the promise we have made to the global society mentioned above, our government positively encourages and supports the development of wind powe r industry, with the Ride Wind Progra m the State Planning Co mmission brought forward a symbolic marker, besides, the government has made a lot of preferential policy, for e xa mp le, the wind powe r ta x has shifted fro m a production value added ta x(VAT) to a consumption VAT, import tariff and value-added ta x on co mponents and materia ls and others related to high-power wind power generation machine would carry out a refund after collection. Furthermore, there are many enterprises and individuals in society which have seen the profitable and policy supportive future of wind powe r development, and driven by potential great benefits ; they want to take a share of the substantial profits . Then, they step into the field fro m time to time and invest various kinds of technologies and capital; the great number of private investments speed up the development of wind turbine and in the other way round, the correlative equip ments and materials manufactories would activate the localization process of wind turbine. 3. The characteristic and existed problem of wind power in China In view of our particu lar geographical conditions and fundamental rea lities, we have our own special characteristics different fro m international society in developing wind power, and there ’re some proble ms appealing with installed capacity growing rapidly. (1) Non-equilibriu m of national economy and wind resource. Even China is rich in wind resource, the distribution is unbalanced. Wind resources are concentrated mainly in the three northern regions and the eastern coastal areas , while only some inland areas have wind resources because of their special terra in or lakes . The distribution of total installed capacity of each province in China is shown in Figure 1, fro m which we can recognize the different richness of wind resources. Wang Heping et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 59–63 61 Figure 1 t ot al inst alled capacity of each province in China in 2009 Besides, Ch ina seeks for priority develop ment of some a reas; economic development is imba lance and so is affordability of electricity price. So me territories rich in wind resource are in the places with weak grid, especially the three northern regions. As natural resource, wind energy has inherent properties. The wind is a lways intermittent and has great randomness, leading to randomness and instability of wind power generation wh ich shall increase difficulty in balancing the load [2]. Thus, a high stability of grid network is necessary. Grid network not stable enough would cause serious stability and security threat. (2) A particu lar e lectricity ma rket background. Co mpared to economy relat ively developed Europe and the USA, our e lectricity cons truction started later. Even we have entered the world's leading ranks after 30 years ’ electric ity reform in many ways ; we are not perfect in power technology, regulation system, or ma rket mechanis m. Ch ina is still in wind power systems’ e xplorat ion and trial stage. As an energy industry, electricity power industry is closely related to industrial development, technological progress and other social aspects of living and large-scale state-owned enterprises are always being the leader of monopoly [3]. On national level, there is much to be desired in competition of market mechanism. The overall e lectricity mechanism is not perfect, so the develop ment of China ’s wind powe r is accompanied simu ltaneously with e lectricity reform, which increase the difficulty o f wind power development and the relevant departments are not able to make co mprehensive and global development program, and as a result, we can not ma ke overall plan in conjunction with other fie lds ’ evolution and technical updates fro m the perspective of long-term develop ment of wind power. With the rap id development of wind power, establishing a reasonable wind power market mechanis m is necessary. Moreover, as a part of e lectric ity construction, grid building -up needs a further pro motion and perfect ion. In general, Ch ina’s current coverage of grid construction is not broad enough, and we have to get confronted with existed problems wh ich have become constraints, like the lac k of adequate stability and security and the difficulty in dealing with unexpected accidents. (3) A diffe rent prima ry target and e xpansion path in developing wind power. As we a ll know, EU is earliest to develop wind power and has the h ighest utilization. Throughout the history of the European Union’s wind powe r develop ment, its technological progress is taking the first road before the scale e xpansion. After continuous technical innovation and improvement, its wind power technology has been a world leader, although mangy countries (including the Un ited States, China) have rapid developmen t of wind power industries, EU re ma ins the world’s ma jor equip ments suppliers. In 2006, the European enterprises ’ share of relevant products accounts for 85% [4]. It is the high costs of wind power that ma inly restrict its further develop ment and spread. Recently, World Wind Energy Council research questions about how to ma ke a further improve ment in cutting 62 Wang Heping et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 59–63 down the cost showing that scale e xpansion contributes to decline of wind powe r cost by 60% , and the re main 40% part re ly on technical progress. Since EU had developed its technology, the next effort would be scale e xpansion, standardization and serialization to reduce costs. Recently, EU continually ra ises its installed capacity, and updates its capacity plan and target again and again to lo wer costs through scale e xpansion on a large scale because of usual achievement of capacity goal in advance. It can be expected that wind power would be an important alternative energy source in EU before long. As for A merica, it a lso tries to replace the oil fossil resources with wind resources on the pre mise that domestic electric ity supply is enough for the demand or even e xceeding the de mand. It has two objectives to develop wind power; one is to solve the pollution proble m and improve the environ ment quality and the other is to deal with the energy crisis and develop renewable resources. China diffe rs largely fro m them. In peak season, our electric ity supply is still insuffic ient to meet the demand of users and we o ften cope with electricity c risis with spasmodic powe r supply by load shedding . So, we develop wind power aiming at solving the electricity supply insufficiency at first and then the sustainable development and environmental protection [5]. Thus, China makes its developing path with scale expansion going in paralle l with technology development, or even with the scale expanding earlier than technological progress. Therefore, in current, wind power industry evolution is like a raging fire and we have achieved a great- leap-forward development, with the supportive policy. For e xa mple , installed capacity racks up wh ile the program updates again and again. However, such an overheating evolution leads to unplanned and disorderly development at the same . There are many prob le ms like the investment in wind powe r rus hing headlong into action and repeated importation, which cost a lot of financia l and human resources. Besides, technological progress can not catch up with wind power e xpansion. Good and bad quality of production of domestic wind turbines and related equipments manufactories mixed together. All these factors mentioned are causing huge potential dangers to the future wind power. Before 2005, mo re than 90% of our wind power equip ments were imported or manufactured with foreign proprietary technology. In order to decrease the cost of wind power and develop domestic wind power equipments manufactories, taking view of technologies development, the government requires a growth in the localization rate of parts and components in wind turbine. In 2005, National Develop ment and Reform Co mmission introduced the provisions named the notice about requests related to wind power construction and management stipulating that localization rate of parts and components of wind power equip ments should reach 70% and those wind farms that can not meet the de mands are not allo wed to build. With the policy, as of 2008, ho me made wind turbines have taken over 62% the market and so the government cancels the rule at the beginning of this year. With such a rapid development, we cannot help asking how much development is made by real technological and what about the remaining part? Even today, Ch ina has not establish ed quality standard system of wind power equip ments, under which condition those machines enter the market if only they pass an unprofessional quality exa mination wh ich is usually unilateral. As a result, we can imagine what a big potential risk we are taking. 4. Advices -wind power of Chinese pattern Here are several advices about making Chinese pattern way to develop wind power. In general, the wind power of China has a rosy prospect and coexists with some problems. (1) Continue the policy support. Fro m the evolution history of world wind power, no progress would be made in any country or territory without the supporting policy of the government. In addition to e xisted incentives, the famous carbon tax we p lan to promu lgate will stimulate the wind power development to a large degree. Wang Heping et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 59–63 63 (2) Establish regulation systems. Though government canceled the require ment that localization rate of components should reach 70% is sure to bring about foreign manufacturers grabbing Chinese market, we must strive to develop homemade wind turbine s and make great efforts to realize a b ig boost of localization rate in wind powe r industry chain with rea l ly mature technology. During the stage, wind power equip ments manufacturing industry rules must be established and market mechanis m should be built. Moreover, we need to regulate unplanned development and actively prevent the quality and cost problems caus ed by repeated introduction of foreign equipments or technology. (3) Never regard installed capacity as target simply. Currently, the proble m that electric ity can be generated but not be transmitted is very grim. After build ing many wind farms with high e xpense, isn’t it worth the candle if the electric ity is useless ? Developing wind power is to meet de mands rather than to build up lofty wind power image. W ith so fast an evolution, a professional progra mming depart ment is needed to ma ke overa ll plans and pro mote utilizat ion of wind power instead of seeking the capacity number blindly; meanwhile we need to perfect grid quality and improve stability and reliability. (4) Achieve the plura lism of utilization patterns. At present, some do mestic scholars put forw ard the wind powe r non-grid-connection theory, and the non -grid wind power being used directly in high powe r- consuming industries is proved available with broad prospects [5]. As to the utilizat ion patterns, we could choose the most economic and feasible method according to circumstances. (5) Set up wind power information center collecting data about wind turbines . Even if we want to ma ke search, the related data is insuffic ient. So it is necessary and urgent to build an information center. Besides, whether the wind farms run we ll or not, they can make profits because of supportive policy, so an information center is required for the society to get acquainted with the operation status . 5. Conclusion Chinese special economica l, environ mental and technological characteristics lead to its particular wind power background, which is different fro m international world. To develop the wind power in long time, China needs to strike out its own developing plan, which is the Chinese pattern wind power road. References [1] Liu Chunge, Chen Ge. Current sit uat ion and view about development of the wind power in our country[J]. Agricultural Engineering Technology (New Energy Industry), 2009(02):10-12(in Chinese) [2] Huang Yi, Zhang Yibing, Sun Qiang et al. Some suggest ions on the measures for high-speed wind power development in China [J]. Energy Technology and Economics, 2010, 22(3):18-22(in Chinese) [3] Shen Xiaoyang, Yang Junbao, Jiang Xiaohua. P reliminary st udy on t he present condit ions and reform t rends of elect ric power const ruction market [J]. Journal of Shanghai University of Electric Power, 2005, 21(3):279-282(in Chinese) [4] Bureau of Energy, Nat ional Development and Reform Commission [J]. China Econom ic&Trade Herald, 2007(16):32-33(in Chinese) [5] Gu Weidong, The influence of t he wind power non -grid-connect ion theory to wind power indust ry in China and it s prospect analysis [J]. Shanghai Electric Power, 2007(1):11-17(in Chinese).