Policy promotes development of wind power industry

In the “Key Points for Market Supervision of the National Energy Administration in 2014” issued by the National Energy Administration, it is once again mentioned that this year should strengthen the supervision of wind power and other renewable energy sources.

As the country stepped up efforts to adjust its energy structure, wind power and other renewable energy sources ushered in the second quarter of rapid development, and the performance of related companies also showed significant improvement. People in the industry believe that with the favorable conditions in both domestic and foreign environments, the turning point of the wind power industry is already present, and the recovery trend is gradually increasing.

The National Energy Administration issued a 2014 notification of the supervision of the energy and electricity market, requiring that this year be further deepened to ensure full-scale acquisition of renewable energy. Concerned about the utilization hours of power generation and the situation of abandoning winds, abandoning water, and abandoning light in key areas, strengthening the integration and operation management of new energy generation such as wind power, researching and formulating wind power, grid-connected photovoltaic generation scheduling agreements, and purchasing and selling electricity contract demonstration texts, etc. file.

According to experts, the phenomena of curtailment of wind curtailment have shown signs of obvious improvement last year. The amount of power generated by wind power generation on the Internet has increased significantly, and the inflection point of the industry is now in sight. According to the average utilization hours data of power generation equipment for power plants of 6000 kilowatts and above published by the National Energy Administration in 2013, the average utilization hours of wind power in China was 2,080 hours last year, an increase of 151 hours compared with 1,929 hours in 2012. The average utilization hours of wind power reached its highest level since 2005. . From the provincial data, the average number of hours of wind power utilization in Yunnan and Fujian ranked in the top two, reaching 2,919 and 2,745 hours respectively. Among the 10 provinces with wind power installed capacity exceeding 3 million kilowatts, the average utilization hours of wind power equipment in Xinjiang, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia exceeded the national average. At the same time, the National Renewable Energy Information Management Center released the “2013 National Wind Power Construction Express”, which showed that in 2013, the annual on-grid electricity of wind power in China was 137.1 billion kWh, a significant increase of 36% year-on-year.

While the utilization of wind power was significantly improved, the nation’s wind power construction also saw a rebound from expectations. According to preliminary statistics from the China Wind Energy Association, China's newly installed wind power capacity in 2013 was 16.1 million kilowatts, a substantial increase of 24% from 1296 kilowatts in 2012, and cumulative installed capacity of wind power has exceeded 90 million kilowatts. Previously, the industry expects to have a total installed capacity of 15 million kilowatts.

Driven by the good market demand, the domestic wind turbine bidding price continued to rise. Taking the average tender price of domestic 1.5MW wind turbines as an example, it has risen from an average of 3,788 yuan per kilowatt in the third quarter of 2012 to 3,912 yuan per kilowatt in the third quarter of 2013. The continued rise in both volume and price also led to a significant improvement in the profitability of wind turbine makers and component manufacturers in 2013. The listed company Goldwind announced that its net profit in 2013 increased by 150% to 200% year-on-year, and Hunan Electric announced that its net profit in 2013 had turned a year-on-year profit. Jixin Technology reported that its net profit in 2013 increased by 50% to 100%.

In the context of the country's increasing support for renewable energy this year, a number of policies will help accelerate the recovery of the industry's economy. The National Energy Administration has issued the "Guidelines for Energy Work in 2014", the "Regulations on the Management of Renewable Energy Quotas" and the steady development of offshore wind power will have an important impact on the wind power industry. It is reported that the "Regulations on the Management of Renewable Energy Quotas" sets clear quotas on the proportion of renewable energy in power generation companies, power grid companies, and provinces. This will undoubtedly increase the enthusiasm of these parties to invest in renewable energy such as wind power. At the same time, China’s coastline is long and there is huge room for development in the offshore wind power market. The opening of this market will bring the wind power industry to a new height.