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Micro-grids have been developed for over two decades as building blocks for future smart grids. Micro-grids have appeared with the advantages such as control flexibility, easy connection of renewable resources, high efficiency and immunity to large area blackouts. Similar to other countries, development of micro-grids in China has gone through from the early stage of AC microgrids to the current varieties of AC, DC and hybrid AC/DC micro-girds based on their applications. Many technical problems have been solved and new problems are continuously appeared during the development process. This paper presents a past, today and future for development of micro-grids in China. The current status of micro-grids and renewable energy sources in China is presented first. The topologies of the micro-grids in China are then introduced and classified into three types. Different control techniques of the micro-grids are introduced. Finally, technical challenges and future prospect of micro-grids in China are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Hybrid energy systems (HES) facilitate the efficient utilization of renewable resources and sustainable energy, and they are expected to be more prevalent in the future. With ground source heat pump (GSHP) as the main body and core technology, the hybrid ground source heat pump (HGSHP) system is used frequently in recent years and its integration and synthesis skills face higher requirements. The worldwide hybrid system has usually been composed of types of energy source devices, such as solar collector, boiler (coal, gas, oil), electric heater, waste energy device, cooling tower, cooler, and thermal storage system with natural cold and hot. Actually, they lead to the complicated unsteady processes and various hybrid energy systems. In China, the applications of these systems are growing year by year, but the new technology breakthrough is being in difficulty and even in an awkward situation. This paper review the progress of GSHP combined with HES all over the world, and surveyed the development of HGSHP in China. Meanwhile, the basic proposals for development in the future are presented to make up the gap in the field of HES and HGSHP. A coming work aims to research the basic problems during the demonstration application, such as investigation of system design parameters, component configuration and control strategies of a HGSHP system. These problems will strengthen theoretical and practical understanding of HES and facilitate more extensive application of HGSHP in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: After a decade of astonishing growth of wind power capacity worldwide, sustainable utilization of wind energy resources has become an issue of utmost importance. For a comprehensive assessment of the environmental sustainability of a wind power, basic emergy flow diagram and emergy indices are presented in this paper to aggregate various renewable/nonrenewable local resources and purchased economic inputs associated with a wind power system, with concrete illustration by a case study of a modern wind farm in Guangxi, China. It is revealed that the solar transformity of wind electricity is the lowest among typical electricity generation technologies. Emergy-based indices are then calculated to provide integrated information of the investigated wind farm from an ecological point of view. Comparison between the results with existing data for other renewable energy systems reflects the substantial advantages of wind power technology over solar thermal power and photovoltaic technologies in terms of sustainability and ecological cost. Nevertheless, biomass-derived fuels, especially biogas by anaerobic digestion, show a better ecological performance and environmental sustainability than wind and solar technologies. In addition, potential for improvements of Chinese wind farm are identified by optimization effort in human labor, land use and waste treatment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Over the last years renewable energy sources have increased their share on electricity generation of China due to environmental and security of supply concerns. In this work author assesses the role of both the amount and share of renewable energy consumption in economic welfare using Cobb–Douglas type production functions. This assessment is carried out by multivariate OLS and SPSS software for China from 1978 to 2008. Results indicate that a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption (REC) increases real GDP by 0.120%, GDP per capita by 0.162%, per capita annual income of rural households by 0.444%, and per capita annual income of urban households by 0.368% respectively; the impact of renewable energy consumption share (SREC) on economic welfare is insignificant, and an increasing share of REC negatively affects economic welfare growth to a certain extent. In this paper, the cost, structural demand, accounting mechanism and policy reasons of renewable energy development are interpreted. Marginal effects analysis show that the shape of sound and robust renewable energy institutions and policies would matter for increasing the standards of economic welfare in the context of speeding up renewable energy development and increasing share of renewable energy consumption, especially the goal-oriented policy refinement should be addressed efficiently in improvement households income while increasing share of renewable energy consumption. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Year 2010 is the significant year of offshore wind power development in China. The first national offshore wind power project is connected to the grid, and the first round of concession projects marks the strong support from central government. It is foreseeable that offshore wind power capacity in China will expand rapidly, and play a notable role in the transition to a sustainable energy system, therefore, the understanding pattern of it is crucial for analyzing the overall wind market in China and global offshore wind power development. This paper firstly provides an overview of global offshore wind power development, then in China, including historical installation, potential of resources, demonstration and concession projects, and target of development. Furthermore, a comprehensive overview of advantages and challenges for developing offshore wind in China is presented. Based on this, analysis on current policies related to offshore wind power and their implementation, current wind farm developers and turbine manufacturers as well as technology transfer and development of China''s offshore wind industry is done. All the previous analysis generates complete evaluation of current status and future perspectives of China offshore wind power development, based on which some policy recommendations for sustainable development of offshore wind power are made. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines the current situation of wind industry development, evaluates the potentials of GHG mitigation and identifies the key determinants of scaling up wind power deployment in China. China has doubled its wind capacity every year for the past 4 years, the total installed capacity reached 12 Gigawatts (GW) and surpassed the 10-GW target 2 years ahead of schedule in the national plan for renewable energy development ,and would reach 100–120GW by 2020 according to the government’s new energy plan. It may become the biggest wind power generation and wind turbines manufacturing country of the world in the next years if the abundant wind resources and enormous domestic market can be harnessed with appropriate policies and efficient technology. The recent positive move in vigorous development of wind power in China implies that the total installed capacity will far exceed the targets of the government’s 2007 renewable energy plan. However, the prosperous Chinese wind market has also revealed some worrisome signals and weakness , such as low capacity factor and frequent outage of wind farms, inadequate grid infrastructure, long distance transmission, low quality of turbines, adverse price bidding, nepotism in wind farm developer selection process and regulatory uncertainty and policy inconsistency which all conspire to hinder effective power generation in the massively new installed wind capacities. A coherent policy framework is required for creating enabling environment for accelerating wind energy penetration and state-of-art technology deployment in the country. It is argued that institutional, financial and technical capacity will need to be cemented to exploit the huge potentials of wind resources to meet the rapidly growing demand for electricity in China in the coming decades with minimised environmental implications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Global warming, increased energy demand, and tremendous air pollution are forcing China to revise its energy structure of electricity generation dominated by coal (80% of total electricity) towards low-carbon electricity. Vigorous development of carbon-free energy resources of electricity is a practical way towards low-carbon electricity in China. In this paper, we shall outline renewable power generation (hydropower, wind power, solar energy, biomass energy, nuclear power, ocean energy and geothermal) together with nuclear power for China, present a reserves assessment, the current status, and barriers for further development, and finish with an outlook towards the future. In our view, China has plenty of free-carbon energy resources to revolutionize its electricity structure and redirect it towards low-carbon electricity systems. Needed are the effective energy policies to get to the way. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Because of the pressing need for maintaining a healthy environment with reasonable costs, China is moving toward the trend for generating electricity from renewable resources. Both solar energy and wind power have received a tremendous attention from private associations, political groups, and electric power companies to generate power on a large scale. A drawback is their unpredictable nature and dependence on weather. Fortunately, the problems can be partially tackled by using the strengths of one source to overcome the weakness of the other. Especially, a large fraction of the solar resource is available at times of peak electrical load. However, the complexity of using two different resources together makes the hybrid solar-wind generation systems more difficult to analyze. Accordingly, this paper first briefly introduces the solar-wind generation system and next develops its critical success criteria. Then, a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process associated with benefits, opportunities, costs and risks, is proposed to help select a suitable solar-wind power generation project. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Limited fossil resources and severe environmental problems require new sustainable electricity generation options, which utilize renewable energies and are economical in the meantime. Concentrating solar power (CSP) generation is a proven renewable energy technology and has the potential to become cost-effective in the future, for it produces electricity from the solar radiation. In China, the electricity demand is rapidly increasing, while the solar resources and large wasteland areas are widely available in the western and northern part of China. To change the energy-intensive and environment-burdensome economical development way, Chinese government supports the development of this technology strongly. These factors altogether make China a suitable country for utilizing CSP technology. In this paper, the potential of CSP in China was studied and strategies to promote development of this technology were given. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]