Search

This paper examines the development of China's wind turbine industry, shedding light on the Chinese mode of disruptive industrial upgrading through policy pragmatism and fragmented, experimental governance. Based on a historical analysis of China's wind turbine industry, the paper highlights three distinct phases, which are all marked by their own inbuilt and potentially self-disruptive impasses and associated crises. In turn, these impasses have forced the Chinese government into radical and flexible interventions, which have spurred on Chinese companies to creatively find new ways to develop and upgrade. The paper illustrates the transformation of Sino-foreign relations by China's non-linear upgrading approach, particularly during the Chinese wind power industry's quality crisis, and its development model. It also discusses the implications this examination of China's approach has for the literatures on China, upgrading, and catch-up. Finally, the paper calls on future studies to enquire further into China's distinct mode of industrial upgrading and its embeddedness in China's institutional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The recent recurrence of wind curtailment in China underscores the rigidity and vulnerability of China's electricity regulatory regime. Using the theory of "fragmented authoritarianism", this paper identifies key institutional barriers causing wind curtailment in China and develops a framework for analyzing China's electricity regulatory regime. Specifically, the fragmented institutional authorities and responsibilities lead to departmentalism and coordination problems, both vertically and horizontally. The resulting mismatches in the investment, generation, and distribution of the electric power sector reflect direct causes for China's wind curtailment. This paper recommends that an electric power system reform with established regional spot markets is needed to fix China's wind curtailment problem. Highlights • Complex reasons lie behind serious wind curtailment in China. • Wind curtailment has its roots in the electricity regulation regime of China. • Fragmented authority causes coordination problems in the power sector. • Mismatches permeates the investment, generation and distribution of power. • A regional power spot market is needed to fix the wind curtailment problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Rapid wind power development in China has attracted worldwide attention. The huge market potential and fast development of wind turbine manufacturing capacity are making China a world leader in wind power development. In 2010, with the newly installed wind power capacity and the cumulative installed capacity, China was ranked first in the world. In 2009, China also constructed and commissioned its first large offshore wind farm near Shanghai. Following earlier papers reviewing the state of China's onshore wind industry, this paper presents a broader perspective and up-to-date survey of China's offshore wind power development, making comparisons between the developments in the rest of the world and China, to draw out similarities and differences and lessons for the China offshore wind industry. The paper highlights six important aspects for China's offshore wind development: economics, location, Grid connection, technological development, environmental adaptation and national policies. The authors make recommendations for mitigating some outstanding issues in these six aspects for the future development of China's offshore wind resource. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic wind turbine manufacturing sector in China has experienced development stages starting from scratch to mass production. During the 11th FYP period (2006–2010), the main goal of wind power policy in China is to promote the commercialization of wind power by large-scale deployment of wind farms. This goal has been realized to a great extent and now the cost of wind power generation is nearly comparable to coal-fired power generation in China. The industry policy, which devotes to mass production of domestic wind turbines, is also largely successful. The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview on wind turbine manufacturing sector in China. The policy evolution in different stages, achievements and challenges pertinent to the sector are addressed in the paper. Key findings are that the misleading industry policy, which provides strong incentive to blind entrance and “competition for scale and price” and restrains innovation as well, is the key obstacle for the sustainable development of the sector. Deficient technology standard and qualification system and the misplaced franchise bidding system also indulge vicious competition and oversupply. Creating a level playground for all turbine supplies, providing strong incentive to innovative manufacturers, establishing thorough and practicable standard and qualification system, and fine-tuning the directive of the franchise bidding system towards technology and service are the primary policy implications proposed by our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese wind power firms have been going international in search of global market for development channels. By employing qualitative research and case study methods, this paper examines the export scale and markets of China’s wind turbines, the market entry modes and location choices of China’s outward foreign direct investment (FDI) in the wind power sector, identifies the determinants and prospects of Chinese wind firms’ internationalization, as well as provides policy implications. It is found that Chinese wind power firms has chosen to internationalize very differently from the Uppsala model in that the exports and FDI of Chinese wind power firms both took place around 2008, and the exports and FDI of Chinese wind power firms are closely linked. The determinants of Chinese wind firms’ internationalization are the competitive advantages of leading Chinese wind firms and the intensified domestic market competition, followed by Chinese government support for internationalization and the attractive overseas market. The prospects of Chinese wind firms’ internationalization are bright but challenging. Drawn on this analysis, conclusions and three policy implications are provided at the end of the paper. This paper contributes to the study of China’s wind power sector from a new perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, the implementation of feed-in tariff (FIT) and attractive public subsidies for onshore wind farms aroused great investment enthusiasm and spurred remarkable development of wind power in China. Meanwhile, rapid learning-by-doing has significantly cut down the cost of wind turbines and the capital cost of wind farms as well. Therefore, it is the right time to examine the appropriateness of the existing FIT policy for wind power in China. In this paper, we employ the analytical framework for levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) to model the generation cost of wind power. Results show that the existing FIT policy is attractive to investors, but serious curtailment and turbine quality issues could make wind power unprofitable. Meanwhile, rapid substantial decreases in the cost of wind power have made it competitive to coal power in 2013, implying that it is possible and necessary to reform the FIT policy for new wind farms. In the future, energy policies for onshore wind power in China could be concentrated on reducing the integration cost, so as to reduce the overall system cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation policies play an important role throughout the development process of emerging industries in China. Existing policy and industry studies view the emergence process as a black-box, and fail to understand the impacts of policy to the process along which it varies. This paper aims to develop a multi-dimensional roadmapping tool to better analyse the dynamics between policy and industrial growth for new industries in China. Through reviewing the emergence process of Chinese wind turbine industry, this paper elaborates how policy and other factors influence the emergence of this industry along this path. Further, this paper generalises some Chinese specifics for the policy-industry dynamics. As a practical output, this study proposes a roadmapping framework that generalises some patterns of policy-industry interactions for the emergence process of new industries in China. This paper will be of interest to policy makers, strategists, investors and industrial experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Compared to the conventional fossil fuel energy, wind power provides clean energy which can mitigate the impacts of greenhouse gas emission and optimize the electric power source structure. During the last decade, the strong support of the Chinese government has contributed to the rapid development of the Chinese wind power sector which has in turn resulted in a significant growth of the Chinese wind turbine manufacturing industry. This growth went through several phases including the initial approval of several leading global Wind Turbine Manufacturers (WTMs) to enter the Chinese market through various methods which included the establishment of wholly foreign-owned enterprises from 2005. Similarly, several government policies have contributed to the significant expansion in terms of both productivity and quantities by local Chinese WTMs. The entrance of foreign WTMs into the Chinese market coupled with the rapid growth of local WTMs has contributed to intense competition in China’s wind turbine manufacture market. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the wind turbine manufacturing industry in China and establishes a hierarchical structure of the WTMs’ competitive priority system. This system consists of 5 indicators and 10 sub-indicators. By comparing the different performances of each indicator, the competitive advantages and disadvantages of the foreign and local WTMs in the Chinese market are identified. The findings provide a valuable reference for the WTMs to improve their competitive priorities and to formulate their competitive strategy in the Chinese wind turbine market. This paper provides inputs for the sustainable development of wind power industry in other countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper studies the 'catching-up' process of China's emerging wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem, and analyses the dynamics of the shifting collaborative innovation network for the period 1980-2011. We have focused on the leading wind turbine manufacturers [i.e., manufacturers of entire wind turbine system integrators (EWSIs)], as well as manufacturers of the turbines' sub-ecosystems (i.e., four key component provider manufacturers: blade, gearbox, generator and control system). A network analysis method was adopted to depict the evolutionary process of the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem. In summary, this research explores: 1) the different technology accumulation/localisation patterns in four different phases of the manufacturing ecosystem, and the collaborative innovation network; 2) the different roles and their interactions in the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem in China; 3) the driving forces of the evolution of the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem. The findings aim to demonstrate the evolutionary trajectory of China in terms of the 'catching-up' of this industry, and contribute to theories of the business ecosystem lifecycle and complementary assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 in the future, and 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. Based on this, analysis on current policies related to offshore wind power and their implementation, current wind farm developers and turbine manufacturers of China''s offshore wind industry is done. All the previous analysis generates complete evaluation of current status and some issues and trends 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: Climate change and limited primary energy resources require indigenous renewable electricity generation options to change the current coal-dominated power source matrix in China. The wind power is such a solution for the above challenges, and it still has large space for improvement in China. In this paper several critical factors related to Chinese wind power were studied in details, including the wind resources, the wind turbine industry and the policies from the Chinese government. Based on the study, the perspective of wind power in China was discussed. With outstanding advantages, the offshore wind power has a bright future in China, so its main characteristics are discussed. Based on the discussions, suggestions were given to improve the development of Chinese wind power, and the government''s further measures are also recommended. [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: A reliable supply of energy is essential to maintain and to improve human being''s living conditions. Compared to the conventional coal-fired approach, renewable energy (RE) helps to mitigate the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions to a large extent. As a newly developed sector with large resource potential and good commercial prospects, China''s wind power industry is exceeding expectations. By 2008, installed capacity of wind power in China totaled over 12GW, making China the fourth largest wind market in the world. However, China has to admit the gap with foreign leading countries, mainly in technical R&D for large-scale wind turbine generation units. This paper attempts to formulate an analytical model for studying and assessing factors that have significant impacts on the local industry. An improved dynamic Diamond Model is developed to help the international community to understand the status quo of the Chinese wind power industry. In order to build a stronger wind power industry, the elements identified in the model need to be strengthened. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In order to mitigate global climate change and air pollution, the Chinese government has assigned high priority to expanding low-carbon power generation in China. Recent studies have shown that wind power is one of the most promising renewable energy option in China. Although many studies have estimated the generation potential of onshore wind power, their results vary widely from 1783 TWh to 39,000 TWh. Therefore, we examine the different assumptions in these papers and identify three main factors influencing the results. The three influencing factors are: weather data set, land utilisation factor, and wind turbine configuration. For our model-based analysis, we define a reference scenario which is used to compare the results. Our analysis shows using a different weather data set increases the generation potential to roughly 35,000 TWh. This is 54% higher than the generation potential of the reference scenario. The land utilisation factor also has a large influence, ranging between −10% and −51%. The studies' assumptions and data should be subjected to careful scrutiny, as the calculated wind power potentials are widely used to develop decarbonisation strategies for the energy system. • Study results on wind power potentials in China vary from 1783 TWh to 39,000 TWh • Influencing factors: weather data set, land utilisation, and wind turbine configuration. • Model-based sensitivity analysis with nine scenario settings. • Chosen weather data set has the highest impact on the calculated results with a variation of 54%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]