The market was liberalised in 2003, dividing the market into power generation and power grid. In principle, all electricity generators have “free and equal access to the grid”. The former “State Power Corporation” was split into two power grid corporations, five power generation corporations, two power consulting corporations, and two hydropower construction corporations, all of them are solely owned by the central government.

El ectrical Energy Sector Overvie

Total installed capacity: 793'000 M (December 2008

Total electricity generated in 2008: 3'438TW

Average power and electricity per person: kW/person and 2'585 kWh/person/yea. Energy Sources (> 1 %). (1)

The National electric power supervision and management committee is the government agency for the power sector. Power grids are controlled by the government and power generation sectors are open to all investors. The Feed-in-tariff of each power plant has to be identified by the provincial government and approved by the pricing bureau of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Wind Energy Sector Overview - Installed capacity of wind energy (end of 2008) : 12'153 MW

Cumulative number of wind turbines by end of 2008 was 11'600, across 21 provinces with an installed capacity of 12'153 MW. Compared to the cumulative installation of 5'906 MW in 2007, the growth rate of installed capacity was 106 %.

In 2008, 5'130 new wind turbines were installed with the capacity of 6'246 MW. Compared to new installed capacity of 3'304 MW in 2007, the growth rate in 2008 was 89 %.

Major developers and investors are nation owned power generation or energy industry corporations, such as Longyuan, Datang, Huaneng, Huadian, CPI and Guohua, etc.

2008 The top 10 provinces of new wind installation in (2)

National targets: In the “Medium and Long Term Renewable Energy Development in China,” issued by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in September 2007, the national targets for wind is 5 GW by 2010 and 30 GW by 2020. However, in the same plan, a “Mandated Market Share (MMS)” requires that the electricity generated from “non-hydro renewable energies” in the power grid reach 1 % by 2010 and 3 % by 2020. In practice the electricity from biomass and solar energy will be very small, so revised targets for wind power were strongly recommend to the government; at least 20 GW by 2010 and 100 GW by 2020 of wind power installation are needed to meet the MMS requirement.

Market Shares of Wind Turbine Manufacturers: The market share for Chinese domestic manufacturers grew very fast. The top three manufacturers/ companies in new installations were Sinovel, Goldwind and DEC (Dongfang Electric), each installing more than 1'000 MW in 2008. Also more than 20 newcomers installed their products or prototype turbines during the year. The new increased market share is 76 % for domestic and joint venture manufacturers and 24 % for foreign manufacturers.

Wind Energy Resource Information

A National Wind Atlas is available from the China Meteorolog ical Administration.

It is estimated that 297 GW would be exploitable energy potential on land for the height of 10 m above ground, based on the wind data from 2'384 meteorolog ical stations nationwide and land area wind power density more than 150 W/sqm.

A detailed survey of wind resource is being undertaken by the Center for Wind and Solar Energy Resource Assessment, including meso-scale modeling and 400 wind masts for onsite measurements.

Wind Energy Legislation

The National Renewable Energy Law became effective on 1 January 2006. Major principles of renewable energy development are mentioned in this law, for example the law guarantees access to the grid for renewable energy producers by stating “grid enterprises shall enter into grid connection agreement with renewable power generation enterprises that have legally obtained administrative license, and buy the grid-connected power produced with renewable energy within the coverage of their power grid.” It commits to pay a fair price for renewable energy by stating that the “feed-in-tariff of renewable energy power generation projects will be determined by the price authorities of the State Council in the principle of being beneficial to the development and utilization of renewable energy and being economic and reasonable ” The incremental costs between the renewable and conventional energy shall be shared in the selling price, etc.

The detailed implementation regulations were form ulated by the gove rnment agencies and the fe in-tariff of wind was identified by the pricing bureau of NDRC, CNY 0,001 Yuan/kWh with an additional fee for renewable energy charged to the electricity bill of all consumers in 2006, increased to CNY 0,002 Yuan/kWh in 2008, etc.

Wind Energy Projects

By the end of 2008, 12'153 MW were installed and more than 10'000 MW are planned for installation from 2009 to 2010.

The first “10 GW size wind power base planning” for Jiuquan region of Gansu province was completed in April 2008 and implemented in June 2008. A bidding was organised by NERC to select wind turbines for 20 projects up to 3'800 MW in this phase, all of them involved in “Jiuqua 10 GW size wind powe base.” In the end, 11 GW were planned for this region. The other five “10 GW size wind power base planning” are located in the regions in Hami of Xinjiang, Eastern Inner Mongolia, West Inner Mongolia, Hebei and Jiangsu.

By 2020, the total installed capacity of wind energy will be more than 100 GW, including 7 GW offshore wind power projects.

The major constraint of power grid issues in fast wind power development has to be resolved during the planning stage of “1 GW size wind powe base”: The power grid corporations are responsible for connection, transmission and consumption of large scale wind power in the same way as for conventional power plants.

Offshore: An 100 MW offshore project is under construction, located in the east of Shanghai city, close to Donghai (east sea) bridge and a domestic made 3 MW prototype wind turbine will be installed in mid of 2009.

References

• CIA World Fact Book: www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-world-factbook
• China Electricity Council (CEC): www.cec.org.cn
• Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA): www.cwea.org.cn

Prof. Shi Pengfe

Vice Chairman

Chinese Wind Energ Association CWEA

E-Mail : shi-pengfei@263.net

www.cwea.org.cn

World Wind Energy Association 2009