This year’s China Wind Energy Association (CWEA) Conference was held on Saturday, January 11, with approximately 300 participants. The CWEA choose to call the annual meeting a “Tea Party” rather than conference in the hope that the speakers could discuss freely and in a relaxed manner.
The event is held on Saturdays every year to attract people coming from a longer way to attend. It is seen not only as a summary meeting of the year with fresh first-hand data, but also as an opportunity to meet every important player in the industry.
Speakers from the government, state grid, developers and wind turbine manufacturers all mentioned that 2013 was a rebound year with results being better than expected (see Table 1).
Everyone agrees that offshore and low speed wind parks will be the next step and China wind power has a bright future. Still, their viewpoints varied on other issues:
1. Wind turbine manufacturers are under huge pressure to receive overdue payments from developers. They complain of having little to no profit because they continuously must lower prices during the bidding process. Goldwind, for example, is making money as a developer instead of as a wind turbine manufacturer. Goldwind has made great progress in lean manufacturing and in reducing the on-site installation period to lower costs.
2. Developers feel that wind power curtailment is still a serious problem and the promised subsidies from the government have been delayed for years. Their balance sheet in 2014 and 2015 should show that they did not make much money because the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) will not be there anymore. They are frightened when thinking of the high cost of maintenance after a huge number of turbines will no longer be covered by warranty.
3. The state grid insists they have done a tremendous amount of work. As of the end of 2013, there will be a 24% year-on-year increase from the grid integration’s point of view. They have built two super high-voltage transmission lines to transmit wind power, hydropower and thermal power as a package from West China to Middle and East China.
4. An official from the National Energy Administration (NEA) says they are pushing local governments to develop offshore wind power. Currently, there is pilot project underway to turn wind power directly into heating steam.
5. An independent researcher claimed that the state grid is too narrow-minded to realize the importance of wind power and has not done enough for renewable energy. Rather, it is seen to still be a bottleneck in wind industry development.
Joyce Fan
Marketing Manager
The Switch China