Energy

Debate on overcapacity blows up in China's wind power sector

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-24 13:37

Asia's largest wind energy event, the WPA has been held six times since its debut in 2003. A total of 15,065 industry visitors from 43 countries thronged the aisles to see 445 exhibitors at WPA.

Progress

According to CWEA, in 2004, Chinese enterprises accounted for only 18 percent of the total wind power installed capacity on the Chinese mainland, while foreign enterprises -- mainly from Denmark, Germany and Spain -- provided 82 percent. By the end of 2005, China had 1,864 wind turbines, producing 1.266 million kilowatts of power. Foreign businesses occupied 77.3 percent of the wind turbine market as well as exclusive control of high-end technological equipment.

The proportion was reversed by the end of 2008, when Chinese producers and joint ventures had 61.8 percent of the country's wind power equipment market.

Meanwhile, China has greatly improved its capacity in producing key components for wind turbines, which were largely imported previously.

Qin Haiyan said that China has basically been able to produce complete sets of turbine blades, gearboxes and generators.

Although China has not yet fully solved the bottleneck in producing gearbox bearings and convertors, Qin said, some Chinese plants have been able to make some in small batches. The bottleneck is expected to be alleviated soon.

Although the technologies for the most commonly used 1.5 mW turbines are largely made with technologies introduced from Europe, some Chinese plants have begun to jointly design such turbines with foreign counterparts, in a bid to eventually develop them independently.