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Gradual improvement and reactive intervention: China's policy pathway for developing the wind power industry
... In the mid-1990s, the Chinese government introduced a purchase guarantee and feed-in-tariff schemes for wind energy as well as strong local content requirements, mandating that wind farms purchase at least 70% domestically manufactured equipment (Li et al., 2023). This resulted in a rapid expansion of installed wind energy capacity (from 1.26 GW in 2005 to 31 GW in 2020) and a rapid growth of the market share of domestic wind turbine manufacturers (from 25% in 2004 to 90% in 2010) (Li et al., 2023). ...
... In the mid-1990s, the Chinese government introduced a purchase guarantee and feed-in-tariff schemes for wind energy as well as strong local content requirements, mandating that wind farms purchase at least 70% domestically manufactured equipment (Li et al., 2023). This resulted in a rapid expansion of installed wind energy capacity (from 1.26 GW in 2005 to 31 GW in 2020) and a rapid growth of the market share of domestic wind turbine manufacturers (from 25% in 2004 to 90% in 2010) (Li et al., 2023). ...
... The strict local content requirements were revoked in 2009, allowing foreign producers to bid for projects (Li et al., 2023;Scheifele et al., 2022). 10 However, the market share of Western turbine manufacturers has fallen even further, allegedly also due to discriminatory treatment by the wind farm operators in award procedures. ...
China uses subsidies extensively to take a leading role in the global markets of green-tech products such as battery electric vehicles and wind turbines. Against the background of the current EU investigations into Chinese subsidies in these sectors, this article takes a careful look at the Chinese subsidy system and provides new data on direct government subsidies to leading Chinese producers of electric cars and wind turbines. Extensive government support has allowed Chinese companies to scale up rapidly, to dominate the Chinese market and to expand into foreign markets. The article concludes that the EU should use its strong bargaining power due to the single market to induce the Chinese government to abandon the most harmful subsidies.
... Die Produktionsprozesse werden zunehmend automatisiert und erlauben die Ausnutzung von Skaleneffekten. Der kapitalistische Wettbewerb und technologische Fortschritte im Produktionsprozess sorgen zudem dafür, dass immer größere Windturbinen hergestellt werden, die größere Mengen an Strom produzieren können und somit die «Kosteneffizienz» steigern (Li et al. 2023). ...
... As of 2022, all new grid-connected projects operate at grid parity. The onshore wind electricity prices are set at 0.29 RMB/kWh in Resource Area I (eastern), 0.34 RMB/kWh in Resource Area II (central), 0.38 RMB/kWh in Resource Area III (western), and 0.47 RMB/kWh in Resource Area IV [69]. ...
Due to the deteriorating ecological environment in recent years, many countries have introduced relevant policies to support the development of clean energy. This paper focuses on wind power generation as the subject for examining green R&D diffusion. Many enterprises take advantage of the information asymmetry between them and the government to carry out fake research and development and cheat taxes, resulting in a large loss of fiscal revenue for the state. The aim of the study is to simulate different scenarios for the diffusion of green R&D in China’s wind energy industry under different tax rates, incentives, and penalties. The results of the study show that the state’s ability to increase penalties can inhibit firms’ behavior of camouflaging R&D. Under the current tax incentives, the introduction of green R&D quotas in the electricity market, coupled with strong penalties, can increase the real green R&D capability of enterprises. The government’s implementation of zero R&D tax incentives and strong penalties do not increase firms’ green R&D capabilities. The diffusion effect of green R&D is more significant in the context of strong market demand. This suggests that the introduction of a quota system can encourage firms to accelerate the pace of technological innovation, while a strict regulatory environment is necessary to avoid policy abuse and optimize resource allocation.
In view of the requirement of cost reduction and efficiency increase for large-scale wind turbine blades, a medium-reactivity epoxy infusion resin system was developed, which contained 20% fast curing agent and 80% slow curing agent. The properties of medium-reactivity epoxy infusion resin system were evaluated via physical and chemical analysis, application process ability analysis, resin clear casting mechanical properties analysis, and laminate specimens mechanical properties analysis. The results indicated that the mechanical properties of this medium-reactivity epoxy infusion resin system can meet the requirements of blade design, and the pre-curing time of the resin was reduced from 3.0h to 2.3h. The application process ability of medium-reactivity epoxy infusion resin system in large-scale wind turbine blade was also verified. The blade parts pre-curing time was shortened by 0.5-1 hour, which meets the target of blade cost reduction and efficiency increase.
China and Japan have started to develop commercial offshore wind farms since the late 2000s and early 2010s. During the past decades, the gap in offshore wind capacity between the two countries widened. While China is poised to dominate the Asian offshore wind market, Japan remains at the initial stage of development. Combining the data from both semi-structured interviews and desk research, this paper conducts a comparative study of offshore wind policy mixes and analyzes underlying factors that affect the selection of national strategies and policy packages. It is argued that the selection of policy mixes for offshore wind energy reflects a careful balancing of facilitating and constraining factors including resource availability, technology maturity, and preexisting institutional structure and practices. These push and pull forces shape the policy landscape for offshore wind, which covers (1) resource surveys and national targets, (2) inter-ministerial coordination, (3) central-local relationship, and (4) feed-in-tariffs (FITs).
It is found that the two countries had chosen different approaches for regulatory reform. China adopted a decentralized path, solving the problems of institutional inertia by turning local bureaucrats into entrepreneurial reformers, whereas Japan took a centralized approach, attempting to remove regulatory complexities by establishing an integrated administrative regime at the central level. A better understanding of the two approaches and their underlying factors might not only help policymakers capitalize on existing governing regimes but also devise new mechanisms to create a better policy environment for offshore wind energy.
Recently China's wind power industry is challenged by many problems such as wind power integration and wind curtailment, which seriously hinders the development of onshore wind power. Since China's policy has a direct and significant influence on wind power industry, it is vital to analyze and evaluate published policies. This paper explores in detail 134 China's onshore wind power policies from 2005 to 2015 so as to provide analytical support for future formulation and implementation of wind power policy. Based on policy summary from equipment manufacturing industry, wind farms and power grid industry, this paper evaluates the policies from the perspective of overall plan, support policy and policy implementation using fitting method, game theory and empirical analysis. The results indicate that China's wind policy is gradually becoming perfected, for example, there are more reasonable objectives and improved support policies. However, many problems remain to be solved, like unreasonable planning, imperfect support policies, immature trading systems and uncoordinated actions among interest related parties. Furthermore, combined with international experiences, suggestions on improving China's wind power policy are proposed from seven aspects.
Many economists have long held that carbon pricing—either through a carbon tax or cap-and-trade—is the most cost-effective way to decarbonize energy systems, along with subsidies for basic research and development. Meanwhile, green innovation and industrial policies aimed at fostering low-carbon energy technologies have proliferated widely. Most of these predate direct carbon pricing. Low-carbon leaders such as California and the European Union (EU) have followed a distinct policy sequence that helps overcome some of the political challenges facing low-carbon policy by building economic interest groups in support of decarbonization and reducing the cost of technologies required for emissions reductions. However, while politically effective, this policy pathway faces significant challenges to environmental and cost effectiveness, including excess rent capture and lock-in. Here we discuss options for addressing these challenges under political constraints. As countries move toward deeper emissions cuts, combining and sequencing policies will prove critical to avoid environmental, economic, and political dead-ends in decarbonizing energy systems.
Expanding the use of wind energy for electricity generation forms an integral part of China’s efforts to address degraded air quality and climate change. However, the integration of wind energy into China’s coal-heavy electricity system presents significant challenges owing to wind’s variability and the grid’s system-wide inflexibilities. Here we develop a model to predict how much wind energy can be generated and integrated into China’s electricity mix, and estimate a potential production of 2.6 petawatt-hours (PWh) per year in 2030. Although this represents 26% of total projected electricity demand, it is only 10% of the total estimated physical potential of wind resources in the country. Increasing the operational flexibility of China’s coal fleet would allow wind to deliver nearly three-quarters of China’s target of producing 20% of primary energy from non-fossil sources by 2030.
The Chinese government has made an important effort to diversify the country’s energy mix and exploit different sources of renewable energy. Although China’s installed wind power capacity has experienced a dramatic expansion over the past five years, electricity generation from wind power has not increased as expected. This paper aims to present the current status of wind generation in China and analyze the causes of the large discrepancy between installed capacity and generation. We find that this is mainly caused by the inadequacy of the power transmission grid, the absence of economic incentives to transmission and backup generation providers, and the lack of a generation-based renewable portfolio standard.
The carbon neutrality goal requires significant acceleration of the renewable energy transition. In China, this acceleration is hampered because of the concerns regarding the recent high-rate wind power curtailment. However, post-2016, wind power curtailment shows notable reductions. Therefore, it is vital to understand the fundamental factors driving such improvements, the curtailment reduction patterns across the countries and key regions, the experiences from the regional heterogeneity of curtailment reductions, and the policy implications available to strengthen wind power curtailment mitigation strategies in the short and long term to accelerate China's clean energy transition. This study constructs an evaluation framework based on the logarithmic mean Divisia index approach to investigate these concerns. Furthermore, it reveals that the eminent contributors at the national scale are local power demand, power exports, and power structures. However, the regional factor patterns oscillate significantly. In northwest China, power transmission is vital to reduce wind power curtailment. In north China, thermal power remains dominant because of its importance to national energy security, impeding its curtailment. Northeast China implements the peak-shaving auxiliary service market, promoting the power grid's capability to consume more local wind power. The fundamental settlement of the curtailment issue calls for market-oriented energy structure reforms to ensure sustainable low-carbon development. This study explains the essence of China's renewable energy development and seeks reliable paths to accelerate wind power integration with policy measures and technical transformations to enhance the adaptability of the power grid system.
Exploitative innovation emphasizes the refinement of technologies. For example, the super long and super flexible blade is an improvement on the traditional blade. Exploratory innovation emphasizes the breakthrough of technological trajectories. The floating offshore wind turbine represents a revolutionary innovation. For survival and prosperity, wind power enterprises need to excel simultaneously at both exploitative and exploratory innovations. The Chinese government has issued a series of wind power innovation policies, but their impact on exploitative and exploratory innovations is not clear. Moreover, technological path dependence describes the connection between intertemporal innovations. The prevalence of QWERTY keyboard is the best case. While the effect of technological path dependence on the impact of innovation policies is also unknown. Using micro-data from listed Chinese wind power enterprises from 2006 to 2019, this study clarifies the effects of innovation policies on exploitative and exploratory innovations, and assesses the moderating effect of technological path dependence. Our results indicate that the effects of wind power innovation policies are significant, yet ambiguous. All categories of policies improve exploitative innovation, but negatively impact exploratory innovation. Besides, technological path dependence positively moderates the positive relationship between policy and exploitative innovation and the negative relationship between policy and exploratory innovation.
In order to promote the sustainable development of the wind power industry, the Chinese Government has issued a series of related industrial policies. The promulgation of these policies not only greatly promotes the development of China’s wind power sector, but may also generate potential contagion effects on other industries. This paper uses contagion tests based on linear dependence and higher-order co-moment statistics, such as co-skewness, co-volatility, and co-kurtosis, etc., to examine the contagion impacts of 8 relevant policies on 10 major economic industries in China for the period 2001-2018. The empirical results show that the wind power notices provide significant evidence of policy contagion than the national energy policies. Tail risk is more important in driving policy transmission as evident by third and fourth order co-moments significantly stronger than the correlation channel. It is not surprising that the financial sector is the most affected by the wind power sector in China, followed by the sectors in industrials and utilities which are closely related to the wind power.
In explaining how socio-technical transitions occur, prevailing theories focus on bottom-up processes driven by new entrants, diverse actors and open-ended exploration in small, protected niches. Incumbent firms are frequently portrayed as hampering change, while managerial strategies using traditional public policy instruments remain understudied. Addressing this bias, we examine strategies used by networks of incumbent state and industry actors in China, Japan and California to accelerate the production and diffusion of battery-electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles. We build a comprehensive framework that systematically marries mechanisms of industrial transformation described in developmental-state literature with theories of socio-technical change from transitions scholarship. We then use a vast dataset of secondary documents and interviews to examine the principal strategies employed in each country, identifying variations over two phases of technological diffusion. Findings reveal that the incumbent actor networks in each country have collectively employed multiple but similar strategies. Yet closer inspection of specific policy instruments, such as regulations and performance-based incentives, along with ambitions to phase out vehicles with internal combustion engines, reveals differences across cases. We explain these by considering different motivations for each country’s transition and influencing socio-political conditions. Our study contributes to the enrichment of future transitions research in at least two ways. Theoretically, by integrating literature on transitions and developmental states, we deepen understanding of how incumbent state and market actors can attempt to drive socio-technical change. Empirically, our analysis provides important evidence for understanding the strategies driving top-down transitions outside northern Europe, and the conditions affecting instrument choice.
Renewable energy is environmentally friendly and with subsidies stimulating, global wind power and photovoltaic (PV) power generation industries are developing rapidly. As the biggest renewable energy generation country, China’s wind power, and PV power generation industries have high growth and are suffering from the subsidy gap. Therefore, China’s government gradually reduced and canceled the subsidies. The cancellation of subsidies brought challenges and opportunities to power generation companies.
The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of subsidy cancellation on wind power, PV power and, coal-fired power generation companies. Firstly, we reviewed the subsidy policy history and then focused on the background of subsidy cancellation. Secondly, the impact of subsidy cancellation on wind power generation hours was proved using the difference-in-differences (DID) method. And the benefits of different trading methods of wind power and PV power existing units were calculated. The building cost caps of the future wind power and PV power unsubsidized units were calculated for different areas. The option of the existing units whether to waive subsidies and the investment advice in each area were proposed. Then, the impact on coal-fired power companies’ generation and revenues were analyzed. Finally, policy suggestions were discussed.
As a renewable energy, wind energy plays a momentous role in improving energy structure and maintaining energy strategic security. Based on the provincial level panel data, this paper not only explores the direct effect of price-oriented policy (POP) and quantity-oriented policy (QOP) on newly installed wind power capacity (NI), but also investigates the indirect impact paths and mechanisms through learning-by-researching (LBS) and learning-by-doing (LBD). Main results are as follows: (1) From the national perspective, it is observed that the two policies can directly promote the expansion of wind power, and POP is better than QOP. (2) From the perspective of regional heterogeneity, POP plays a significant direct role in promoting the wind power growth in the eastern, central and western regions, and QOP has achieved a long-term success in the eastern region, but fails in the central and western regions in the long run. (3) From the perspective of resource endowment heterogeneity, QOP plays a better direct role than POP in areas with rich wind resources, but the opposite is true that in the areas with relatively poor wind resources. Based on the research results, several constructive suggestions are put forward.
The coordinated development of upstream, midstream, and downstream of wind power industry chain is the key to solve the problem of wind power consumption. Therefore, this paper firstly constructs the performance evaluation index system of the upstream, midstream, and downstream of the wind power industry chain, and evaluates the performance of the upstream, midstream, and downstream of the wind power industry based on entropy weight-TOPSIS. Secondly, the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model between subsystems of wind power industry chain is established to dynamically evaluate the CCD between upstream and midstream, midstream and downstream, and among three subsystems of wind power industry chain. Finally, taking the development data of China’s wind power industry from 2010 to 2019 as an example, the coupling coordination degree between subsystems is empirically studied. The results show that: the overall performance of wind power industry chain has a tortuous upward trend; the coupling degree (CD) of each subsystem is better than that of 2011 and 2012; The CCD of upstream and midstream of wind power industry chain fluctuates more than that of midstream and downstream and that of three subsystems.
China is the largest power producer and consumer and has the largest installed capacity of wind turbines (WTs) worldwide. In the last two decades, China's installed capacity of WTs has exploded, significantly impacting its wind power (WP) industry and promoting the development of the industry globally. This paper examines China as one part of the world and elucidates its role, status, and impact on global WP development from a global perspective. Research indicates that China has become the global leader in WP, its WP development has greatly promoted the growth rate of global WP, and it has become an indispensable force in global WP development. However, the comprehensive capability of China's WP generation is not only lower than that of other major WP countries but also lower than the global average. China's WTs have low global recognition and are difficult to export. In addition, the proportion of WP in China's power structure is lower than that of most other major WP countries. Fortunately, these gaps between China and other major WP countries are gradually narrowing. The goal of this paper is to help researchers and investors better understand China's situation and to provide a reference for the rational investment in and development of China's WP.
While China's wind power initiative has experienced rapid growth, serious curtailment issues persist. Though some studies have investigated this matter, we explain this phenomenon from the novel perspective of excess capacity. We first set up a theoretical model to explore the mechanism behind excess investment and find that the ‘sticky’ feed-in tariff (FIT) and declining costs of wind power generate high mark-up for wind power investors, leading to a higher probability of excessive investment. The theoretical prediction is empirically tested with a probit and tobit model using provincial-level data between 2009 and 2016. The estimation results show that a 0.1 yuan increase in the mark-up leads to a 2%–3% increase in the rate of curtailed wind power. Based on the estimation results, we simulate several scenarios to assess quantitatively how an improved policy design could have alleviated the curtailment issue. Simply increasing the frequency of the FIT rate adjustment while maintaining the same subsidy reduction level between 2009 and 2016 could have reduced the curtailed wind power by 23 to 27 billion kwh, accounting for 15%–17% of actual curtailed wind power. If the policy were better designed to reflect the declining trend of wind power costs more accurately, the curtailment rates could have been further reduced by 2.81%, corresponding to a reduction in wasted wind energy of >43 billion kwh (or 28% of actual curtailment). Although accepting curtailment for a certain period could help to accelerate renewable energy deployment, our analysis shows that the FIT policy design could have been improved to reduce welfare loss. These findings can not only assist the Chinese government in framing effective policies, but also may be applied to other emerging technologies or industries that require subsidy support.
China's wind power industry has rapidly developed and the level of technological innovation has been improved greatly with the government's funding support. However, few studies have considered whether government subsidies are effective in improving the innovation performance of Chinese wind power industry. To answer the above problem, this paper uses the sample data of listed wind power enterprises from 2012 to 2018 to evaluate the innovation efficiency of Chinese wind power industry. We employ a stochastic frontier model based on the translog production function, analyze the impact of government subsidies and other enterprise characteristics on innovation efficiency. Our results show that, first, the innovation efficiency of China's wind power industry is relatively low, but the overall trend is upward. Second, in the long term, there is a U-shaped relationship between government subsidies and innovation efficiency, reducing government subsidies can improve innovation efficiency before the turning point. Third, the effect of ownership concentration and financial leverage is not significant, but employees' high quality and high profitability play a significantly positive role in improving the innovation efficiency of China's wind power industry. The conclusions also provide a reference to policy making for the sustainable development of Chinese wind power industry.
The grid parity of wind generation has drawn increasing attention owing to the serious subsidy funding shortages in China, but scientific evidences for the grid parity feasibility are still not sufficient, because most studies have neglected the additional balancing cost and grid-connection cost caused by the wind generation. We hence develop an integrated methodology to analyze the grid parity of onshore wind generation from a system cost perspective, coupling a system generation cost model, a grid parity index model and a learning curve model. Key findings are summarized as follows: (1) The average system cost of wind generation declined from 0.84 yuan/kWh in 2006 to 0.57 yuan/kWh in 2017. Guangdong has the highest system cost, while Xinjiang costs the least. (2) The traditional LCOE approach underestimates the wind generation cost by about 15%, resulting in biased conclusions regarding the grid parity. (3) All the provincial grid parity indexes have values more than 1, indicating that the current grid parity of wind generation is impractical. (4) The national average grid parity time of wind generation are forecasted to be 2021, 2023 and 2026 when the on-grid coal generation prices are 0.50 yuan/kWh, 0.45 yuan/kWh and 0.40 yuan/kWh, respectively.
China has adopted an ambitious plan for wind power to achieve grid parity with the on-grid price of coal-fred power in 2020. Whether this target can be achieved is a great concern for policy makers as well as potential investors. To address this issue, we frst estimate the future levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of wind power using a learning curve method, and then determine whether grid parity can be achieved by comparing it with the on-grid price of coal-fred power. Specially, the effect of carbon pricing on the grid-parity is explored, and a sensitivity analysis on how the discount rates, learning rates, and curtailment rates affect grid parity is conducted. The learning rate of onshore wind power is estimated using a panel dataset consisting of information of 2059 onshore wind projects in China from 2006 to 2015. Based on this learning rate, the future LCOE of Chinese onshore wind power from 2016 to 2025 is calculated. The results show that the LCOE of onshore wind power decreases by 13.91% from 0.40 RMB/kWh in 2016 to 0.34 RMB/kWh in 2025. By comparing the LCOE with the on-grid price of coal-fred power, the grid parity of onshore wind power may be achieved in 2019. With the implementation of the carbon pricing policy, the grid parity will be achieved earlier. More specifcally, with the
carbon price reaching 10, 35, and 60 RMB/t CO2, the grid parity can be achieved in 2019, 2017, and 2016, respectively. The results of the sensitivity analysis show that in the case of high discount rates, low learning rates, high curtailment rates, high O&M cost and low capacity factor, the grid parity will be delayed, and a high carbon price will be required to achieve the grid parity.
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.
China has seen a surge in wind power installation over the past decade, and is now the world leader in installed capacity. However, wind curtailment – i.e., when the power grid frequently interrupts the power connection of installed wind capacity – has become an increasingly serious problem. But despite wind curtailment significantly jeopardizing wind power developers’ profitability in China, companies have continued to invest. This study, based on extensive interviews with decision-makers in China's Central State-Owned Enterprises (CSOEs), attempts to explain this seeming paradox. Since the majority of wind power investment in China has been made by CSOEs, previous findings of SOE studies assume that this continued investment abjures “economic rationality” due to political/policy burdens. However, this study shows that this is not necessarily accurate. CSOEs’ investment behavior also accords with market logic, as they competed fiercely over wind power sites, increasing investment scale as a rational long-term strategy of profitability. We also find that the embrace of market logic by CSOEs has resulted from recent economic and power sector reforms. For a more efficient market, policy-makers must pay greater attention to the quality of competition among CSOEs.
Studying effect of different types of wind power industry policies on the technological innovation of enterprises is the core issue that academics and policymakers pay close attention to nowadays. Based on systematically carding the quantization of 254 wind power industry policies issued by governmental departments at the ministerial level and above in China from 1994 to 2016, this paper categorizes innovation policy instruments into supply-side, environmental-side, demand-side, and employs Negative Binomial Regression Estimation Model to research the impact of industry policies on wind power enterprises’ innovation performances. The research results show as follows: the effect of different types of policy instruments on enterprise innovation is significantly different: demand-side policy and environmental-side policy have significant inhibitory effects on enterprises’ innovation performance, but supply-side policy has a significantly positive effect especially on the core technological innovation. The effect of wind power industry policies on the innovation quality of different ownership enterprises is significantly different: comprehensive policy and supply-side policy have positive impacts on the core technological innovation of private-owned enterprises, while demand-side policy and environmental-side policy have only positive impacts on the non-core technological innovation of state-owned enterprises. Finally, this paper proposes certain recommendations to consummate wind power industry policies for China.
The political failure of China's first independent regulator in a strategic industry – the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC), 2002–2013 – provides a natural experiment to uncover fundamental challenges to a gradualist approach to electricity market formation. Taking a political institutional approach, we show that while it was largely predictable that the breakup of the monopolistic power industry in 2002 created bureaucratic and corporate interests that would undercut the institutional role of SERC, subsequent difficulties in reforming electricity pricing, dispatch system, and integrating renewable energy sources strongly suggests that a central regulatory body would be necessary to lead a decisive transition to a market-based electricity market.
To date, challenges to renewable energy transition have been discussed largely based on the cases and experiences from the Global North. In this paper, we aim at broadening our understanding of this specific socio-technical transition by incorporating the case of wind power development in China. Based on the analysis of policy and legal documents, we examine how institutions are organized and incentives are distributed among relevant stakeholders. We argue that China’s significant wind curtailment problem has been produced and exacerbated by multiple axes of institutional misalignments stemming from China’s fragmented energy bureaucracy. Through the study of the Chinese approach to renewable energy transition, our goal is to demonstrate the institutional plurality of socio-technical transition and the context specificity of its challenges.
In the 21st Conference of the Parties held in Paris in December 2015, China pledged to peak its carbon emissions and increase non-fossil energy to 20% by 2030 or earlier. Expanding renewable capacity, especially wind power, is a central strategy to achieve these climate goals. Despite greater capacity for wind installation in China compared to the US (145.1 versus 75.0 GW), less wind electricity is generated in China (186.3 versus 190.9 TWh). Here, we quantify the relative importance of the key factors accounting for the unsatisfactory performance of Chinese wind farms. Different from the results in earlier qualitative studies, we find that the difference in wind resources explains only a small fraction of the present China−US difference in wind power output (−17.9% in 2012); the curtailment of wind power, differences in turbine quality, and delayed connection to the grid are identified as the three primary factors (respectively −49.3%, −50.2%, and −50.3% in 2012). Improvements in both technology choices and the policy environment are critical in addressing these challenges.
China has the largest installed capacity of wind farms, yet its wind energy electricity output is lower than that of other countries. A new analysis of the relative contributions of the factors influencing China's wind sector could help policy makers prioritize solutions.
The rapid growth of China's installed wind power capacity in recent years is closely related to the wind energy policies issued by the Chinese government. Using content analysis and quantitative analysis methods, this paper studies the historical evolution of Chinese wind energy policies. Based on 72 wind energy policies issued in the past two decades (1995-2014), this paper analyzes the issuing organization, form, number and stringency of wind energy policies and compares different policy instruments in two periods. The results show that the number and stringency of wind energy policies fluctuated greatly from 1995 to 2014 and that more than twenty organizations had independently or jointly issued the policies. The main organization issuing wind energy policies, however, is the department that controls key economic and administrative resources and not the one that is in charge of wind energy. Of the 72 policies issued, twenty-three took the form of notices, and eleven were measures. As to the policy instrument, environmental policies are most widely applied by the Chinese government, and "regulation control" and "goal-planning" instruments are the ones most frequently adopted. Furthermore, the application of supply- and demand-type policies is inadequate, and few effective instruments have been adopted.
Since 2010 China has faced a worrying phenomenon "wind curtailment" in the development and operation of the wind power industry. This phenomenon has resulted in sharp decline of the utilization hours of the wind power equipment, seriously affected the economic benefits of the wind farms and caused serious energy waste. The wind curtailment in China is seemingly caused by the volatility of the wind power technical characteristics. However, judging from a deep level, the planning, networking management and policies play a critical role. With analysis this paper makes such a conclusion: it is not practical to solve the wind curtailment of China solely with the technical solutions and comprehensive measures must be taken. The paper offers strategies from the planning, policy and technical levels to solve the wind curtailment problem according to the actual situation of China and by referring to experiences of developed countries.
With policy encouragement and capital investments, China's wind power has been enjoying a tremendous development for years. China has now become a global leader in terms of wind power capacity, with a total of 52.58 gigawatts of wind power connected to power grid. However, the overwhelming majority of accumulated and added installment is now embarrassing China's wind power by grid connectivity and power curtailment problems. In this paper, we provide a systematical review of China's wind power industry in the past six years, analyze the existing problems behind the remarkable statistics, examine the underlying causes for the problems, propose method for China's future wind power development. In order to have a profound understanding for the problems of China's wind power, we give a deeper look into three typical overcapacity regions. On that basis, we suggest that government should develop distributed wind power in the east, rather than continue constructing wind farms in the "three-N region".
China is facing a number of challenges such as electricity supply shortages, excessive consumption of fossil fuels and environmental pollution. As a renewable energy, wind power plays a vital role in mitigating these issues. With its unique geographical location and rich resources, China has produced a wind power industry that has achieved rapid growth. However, the complex Chinese market environment presents significant challenges to the industry. This research has adopted a strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis approach to examine both the internal and external factors that affect the competitiveness of the wind power industry in China. An extensive and critical review of a wide range of literature (including academic papers, industry reports, statistical data, relevant regulations and policy documents) was conducted. As a result, 19 factors were identified. These factors form part of an integrated framework that provides a useful tool for both policy makers and industry to gain a better understanding of what affects the sustainable development of the wind power industry in China. The results also provide a useful reference for foreign firms that intend to explore the Chinese wind power market. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
With fast development of the global wind energy market in recent years, China is attaching greater importance to developing the wind power industry and increasing the proportion of wind energy. Currently, the cumulative installed capacity of wind turbines in China is listed among the top ranks in the world. Manufacturing industry is the key to development of wind energy. Although there is a relatively complete manufacturing and supply chain for wind turbines in China, including infrastructures for manufacture of almost all major parts, the design technology and key components of wind turbines still rely on imports. Therefore, problems still exist in the development of wind power industry. However, few papers focus on this aspect at present. In this paper, the current development of wind power industry in China is investigated, and exiting problems are discussed. The aim of this paper is to let more experts know the situation and do something for the wind power industry in China.
Wind power is one of the world׳s major renewable energy sources, and its utilization provides an important contribution in helping solve the energy problems of many countries. After nearly 40 years of development, China׳s wind power industry now not only manufactures its own massive six MW turbines but also has the largest capacity in the world with a national output of 50 million MW h in 2010 and set to rise by eight times of that amount by 2020. This paper investigates this development route by analyzing relevant academic literature, statistics, laws and regulations, policies and research and industry reports. The main drivers of the development in the industry are identified as technologies, turbines, wind farm construction, pricing mechanism and government support systems, each of which is also divided into different stages with distinctive features. A systematic review of these aspects provides academics and practitioners with a better understanding of the history of the wind power industry in China and reasons for its rapid development with a view to enhancing progress in wind power development both in China and the world generally.
The wind power industry is a complex industry involving many different types of enterprises from diverse fields loosely working together to form both internal and external associations. As a complicated system it is necessary to detect the location of the various industry components, their operation characteristics and the various relationships between the many sectors of the wind power industry. Using the general industry chain theory, this paper develops a wind power industry chain model and examines the operation mechanisms of the industry. This leads to the establishment of three perspectives for the wind power industry, these are the supply chain model, the technology chain model and the value chain model that respectively reflect the supply–demand relationship, technology transfer and value creation of wind power related industries. The models can be used to analyze: the resources distribution, the supply and demand and production relationships amongst related enterprises, the relevant technology systems and the value increase process of the wind power industry. Using China's wind power industry as an example, this study uses: (1) the supply chain to analyze the construction, equipment supply and the on-grid connection of wind power; (2) the technology chain to evaluate the technical status of China's wind power industry from the perspective of the level of technology, the source of the technology and the technology standard; and (3) the value chain to analyze the value distribution of China's wind power industry. The results suggest that over capacity, lack of core technology and an incomplete follow up service system are the major obstacles to China's wind power industry development. The models form an effective tool to analyze and evaluate the development status of the wind power industry in different countries, and support the concept of formulating a sustainable development strategy.
Since 2005 the Chinese wind power technology industry has developed rapidly, with China becoming the largest installer of wind power capacity in the world in 2010. This paper reviews the policy system implemented in China to support the wind power industry, centered on China's 2005 Renewable Energy Law. It examines the industry's achievements over the past two decades, including the development of wind power technology and equipment, the utilization of China's wind power resources, and the cost reductions achieved. It then explores the obstacles affecting the ongoing sustainability of the Chinese wind industry, including regulatory barriers, grid integration challenges, and challenges to continued technological innovation. It recommends that integration challenges be addressed through policy reforms, establishing interconnection standards, and creating predictability with forecasting and storage; that market signals be established with long-term development goals and pricing reforms; and that industry limitations be addressed with targeted R&D, improved wind resource assessment and transparency, domestic and international collaborations, and the cultivation of a skilled workforce.
Due to its sheer size and growth trend, no other country is facing more daunting challenges than China in reducing its pollutant emissions. A critical but inadequately addressed question is how rapidly China could feasibly achieve such mitigation. The stake is high not only about how much worse China's environmental quality could become but also about how the world can prevent catastrophic climate change. Through examining sulfur dioxide (SO2) mitigation in coal-fired power plants and wind energy development for carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation, this article proposes a comparative advantage strategy for overcoming high barriers to fast pollution mitigation. On the demand side, China could firstly make progress in the deployment of more pollution control facilities and then improve their operational performance. The resulting low technological market entry barriers could help to build enough industrial capacity to meet the huge demand with prices under control. The strategy in the current practice could be improved to establish not only a large supply industry but also a strong one to enable other countries to move more rapidly in pollution mitigation.
A steeply rising carbon tax is the best way to stimulate the early switch from fossil fuel to renewables. If such a tax is infeasible and a subsidy on renewables is used instead, fossil fuel is pumped more vigorously and global warming exacerbated. However, this Green Paradox does not hold if it is not optimal to fully exhaust fossil fuel reserves as then the subsidy ensures that more fossil fuel is left in situ and brings forward the date of introduction of renewables. If there is learning by doing in using renewables, a high but falling subsidy is called for to kick-start green innovation. Society is in need of a rapid rather than a gradual sustainability transition driven by redirecting technical change towards clean technologies.
This communication displays some of our on-going research on the incompleteness of China's advances toward “best practice” in policy-making and institution-building for renewables. In particular, this paper: (1) summarizes how Chinese policies and institutions for the deployment of renewable electricity are only partially compliant with what is internationally recognized as “best practice”; and (2) contextualizes Chinese policies and institutions for renewables in the broader picture of China's political economy. Much as a political economy perspective has aided the understanding of why Chinese economic reforms were partial and unique, the said contextualization might help explain why China's policies and institutions for renewables diverge from “best practice”. Further, given that China proved successful in promoting its economic growth with partial and unique reforms, the partiality and uniqueness of its renewables policies and institutions need not impede the rapid development of renewable electricity. This on-going research has so far combined a review of specialized literature and the business press with semi-structured interviews held with relevant actors in policy, business, and research related to renewable energies.
The People's Republic of China foresees a target of 30 GW for installed wind power capacity by 2010 (2008: 12 GW). This paper reports on the technical and economic potentials of wind power, the recent development, existing obstacles, and related policies in China. The barriers to further commercialization of the wind power market are important and may deter the 100 GW capacity target of the Chinese government by 2020. The paper concludes that the diffusion of wind power in China is an important element for not only reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, but also for worldwide progress of wind power technology and needed economies of scale.
A review and prospect of the working capital management
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