China fan industrialization 20 years thorn road

The large-scale use of renewable energy such as wind energy and solar energy has become an important choice for countries in the world. Since 1985, the development of grid-connected wind turbines has been completed. The Chinese wind power industry has just completed 20 years of development. China's wind power industry started not late, but now, the gap between the level of wind power in the world is increasing.

Under the background of the world wind power development in full swing, China’s wind power construction is lagging behind. Its root cause is mainly wind power tariff is higher than coal power tariff. The reason for high wind power tariff is because wind power generation equipment is expensive and we cannot manufacture large-scale wind power by ourselves. Equipment can only be purchased from abroad. According to statistics, in 2004, China’s cumulative total installed market share accounted for only 18% of domestic enterprises, and imported companies accounted for 82%, mostly for European companies such as Denmark, Germany, and Spain.

The focus of this issue will review the thorny road of China's large-scale industrialization of wind turbines for 20 years, and the unusual course of wind power companies' development in 20 years, and discuss the policy environment for the development of China's wind power industry in the future.

Since 1985, the development of grid-connected wind turbines has been completed. The grid-connected wind power industry in China has just completed its 20-year history. For 20 years, it is also exactly the design life of a wind turbine operating in the field. In 1985, the original Vestas company's 55 kW grid-connected wind turbine unit, which was invested by the former Ministry of Machinery Industry and introduced in Dongfang County of Hainan Province, had just retired in late 2005.

In the late 1980s, a number of imported wind turbines were also installed in Fujian and Xinjiang. In the past 20 years, the standalone capacity of the international mainstream wind turbines has reached 2 to 3 megawatts, and China has just designed and produced a megawatt wind power prototype. When those imported wind turbines are decommissioned, the wind power resources are still rich in the former site. Can we establish a large-scale wind turbine unit that China has designed and produced?

The industrialization route "introduction" at the beginning

Before and after 1984, China began to enter the stage of practical promotion of off-grid wind turbines. At present, large-scale wind turbine manufacturers in the world market have started wind power technology research and development since the 1970s, such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States. enterprise. At that time, the gap between China's wind power industry and the world was much smaller than it is now, but the Chinese wind power industry did not seize the first opportunity.

In 1985, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region began planning to build wind farms (wind farms). In 1986, Daban City introduced a Danish 100-kilowatt Wincon unit. The predecessor of Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co., Ltd., which produced prototypes of domestic-made megawatt wind turbines, also began to build wind farms at that time. Jin Qin Technology Chief Economist Shi Qinqing said that by building wind farms and learning wind power technology abroad, they have accumulated some practical experience in the operation of wind power equipment, which laid the foundation for the design and manufacture of China's own wind turbines.

Shi Pengfei, one of the earliest witnesses to the domestic production of wind turbines in China, and Shi Pengfei, vice chairman of the China Wind Energy Association, told reporters that the power sector at that time did not place as much emphasis on renewable energy as the government today. Part of the pressure to develop wind power comes from participating in the international ministerial meeting. The power sector is proud of the newly added capacity of 20 million kilowatts a year, while the response of other countries is that China, which is dominated by coal-fired power, has increased its greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emissions. In order to "fit the facade," develop wind power, "taste the gold, but stick it on one line, and stick more on it." This kind of mentality does not regard wind power and other renewable energy sources as future energy development strategies.

Despite this, domestic equipment development has been difficult to start. In the later period of the "Eighth Five-Year Plan", the development and manufacture of localized wind turbines began. Li Baoshan, the Department of High-tech Development and Industrialization of the Ministry of Science and Technology, has been responsible for this work since 1993. At that time, China introduced 10 sets of 120 kilowatt wind turbines from Danish companies. Based on this, the initial research and development goal was a 200 kilowatt wind turbine prototype.

How to develop your own wind turbine? This is a topic that has been debated from the beginning of R&D. One way is to introduce equipment, and the other is to introduce technology. In the later stages of development, both approaches have supporters and practitioners.

Shi Pengfei said that in 1995, the State Development Planning Commission, the Economic and Trade Commission, and the Science and Technology Commission were formulating the “Outline for the Development of Renewable Energy in China”. In May of the same year, the former Minister of the Ministry of Electric Power officially announced at the Beijing International Wind Power Conference that by the end of 2000, China’s wind power generation should achieve 1 million kilowatts of installed capacity.

Missed the development opportunity of power structure adjustment

In 1996, the State Development Planning Commission formulated the “Wind-Winning Plan”: Using certain wind turbine equipment orders as a bargaining chip, adopting joint ventures and cooperation methods to introduce technology, and by the year 2000, the localization rate of large-scale wind turbine generators will be 60%.

The original intention of the “Wind Wind Project” is to open up a new situation in the localization of equipment. However, during the five years from 1996 to 2000, the power market in China has undergone major changes. This time, wind turbine research and development still missed the low-cost entry. Golden development period.

At the end of 1998, China experienced an oversupply situation and faced an opportunity to adjust its power supply structure. “But this opportunity did not give wind power, because of the low price of water and electricity, hydropower developed on this basis,” said Shi Pengfei. At that time, the State Planning Commission thought that wind power was expensive and many wind power projects were not approved.

At the same time, the power system reform will create a competitive market. The former Ministry of Electric Power was transformed into a national power company, and later it was divided into two national power grids and five power companies to compete with each other. In this case, due to the high cost of wind power, wind power could not participate in the competition, and the wind power equipment manufacturing industry could not develop.

Li Baoshan believes that the strategy of “guide the development of the wind power industry with the market” proposed at that time was correct. However, Shi Pengfei told reporters that a stable market environment has never been cultivated and that manufacturers have no way out. Eventually this will cause China's wind power equipment manufacturing industry to miss the golden period of development. Because foreign pitch-shifting wind turbines did not appear until after 2000, if R&D and manufacturing were vigorously promoted before, the first step was to start with fixed-speed wind turbines and transition to pitch-shifting, which would cost more than MW wind power. The crew is much lower and the difficulty is much lower.

At the end of 2000, the total installed capacity of wind power in the country was only 346,000 kilowatts, which did not achieve the target of 1 million kilowatts set in 1995, of which more than 95% of the units were imported. In the same year, our country has just begun to produce 600 kilowatts of wind turbines in small batches, and its technology is equivalent to that of foreign countries in 1995. During the same period, foreign mainstream models have been promoted to 1 to 2 megawatt wind turbines.

Shi Pengfei said that the "Wind-Winning Plan" with high expectations has finally landed on two joint ventures. In 1999, Xi'an Aero Engine Company and China Luoyang No. 1 Tractor Group Co., Ltd., a joint venture with Germany Nordex Corporation and Spanish MADE Corporation, formally launched two equipment manufacturing plants, namely the "national team" organized by the Planning Commission. However, the concept of “using the market for technology” is not satisfactory. The market environment for wind power provided by China is not very good. Foreign companies directly use parts to complete assembly and the technology has not learned.

Shi Qinqing once remarked the words of a foreign businessman: “China's wind power market is very big, but it is quite crowded.” There is no rule in the meaning.

However, over the past few years, it was also a few years that China's wind turbine manufacturing industry absorbed and absorbed. The aforementioned Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co., Ltd. introduced a 600-kilowatt wind turbine manufacturing technology using a production license in 1997. In 1998, the first prototype of Goldwind was put into operation, and the 600-kilowatt localized wind turbine was manufactured.

Domestic megawatt prototype prototype

“At that time, we were still thinking about a planned economy. We once suggested that the assembly plant should be the main one. The final assembly plant should select partners, determine who should make the blades, who should do the gear box, etc. Finally, the whole machine should be put into the wild. Can not run or damage, are responsible for the assembly plant. And using the 'national team' combination, no one is responsible for the problem. "Shi Pengfei said in an interview. Fortunately, the model finalized by the assembly plant has already been implemented in China. After 2000, China's wind turbine manufacturing industry has entered the stage of industrialization.

In 2005, China's 750-kilowatt wind turbine unit has been industrialized, with a cumulative installed capacity of 74 units. Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Yunda Wind Power Engineering Co., Ltd. have the capability to produce 750-kilowatt wind turbines. However, at the end of the same year, the total installed capacity of wind power in China had just reached the target of 1 million kilowatts, which was 5 years later than the planned time of the original power department.

On the other hand, in 2000, the national "863" program supported the research of megawatt wind turbine technology and began to enter the stage of R&D and trial production of megawatt-class turbines. Shi Pengfei told reporters that initially he did not know who was able to do a good job, and arranged five research and development units to start at the same time, each giving 2 million to 3 million yuan. After the launch, the three strongest ones did not make it, leaving only Goldwind and Shenyang Institute of Technology Wind Energy Technology Institute.

He Dexin, Chairman of the China Wind Energy Association, said that the first prototype of a 1MW wind turbine unit independently designed and manufactured by the Institute of Wind Energy Technology, Shenyang University of Technology was put into trial operation in August 2005, with a localization rate of 85% and a second prototype program. After the improvement, it was installed and operated in 2006; the first prototype of the 1.2 MW wind turbine unit independently designed and manufactured by Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co., Ltd. was installed and put into trial operation in May 2005. The localization rate was 40%. The second prototype was planned. Installed and operated in May 2006, the localization rate will reach 85%. As a final assembly plant, they have developed their own design solutions for many years, and they have also selected domestic megawatt-class wind turbines supporting component suppliers.

Although some problems were discovered during the trial operation, Shi Pengfei, who is concerned about the development of China's wind energy industry, has already made psychological preparations. He said that for innovation, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on the reliability of the unit and solve the problems one by one. Do not be different from others for innovation. It does not matter if you do not solve problems in the wild. We are now in the initial stage and we do not understand how the "temper" of wind turbines is innovative. In addition, there is a good opportunity for China's wind turbine innovation, that is, the operating environment problems encountered in China's wild are very different from those in Europe. If we can solve the reliability problem in the actual operating environment in China, it is innovation.

Li Baoshan introduced that during the "11th Five-Year Plan" period, the country placed great hopes on wind power technology research and needed to realize the industrialization of megawatt wind turbines; the state invested funds will support the development of wind turbines with 2 to 3 MW of wind turbines. , and the development of key components; strive to achieve zero breakthrough in offshore wind farms.

Give a little "market" to be brilliant

Shi Pengfei told reporters that in recent years, oil prices, coal shortages, environmental pollution and other pressures have caused the Chinese government to realize that renewable energy should be developed squarely. Compared with the past, there has been tremendous progress. This is an understanding process. . However, after all, the wind power industry has missed the best opportunity for development. He used an image metaphor to illustrate this problem: In 2004, domestic units accounted for only 18%, in 2005 it was only 28%, and the products are "fixed paddle constant speed" technology, as in the television industry, "black and white TV" This is the kind of technology we have not yet independently developed; the current international mainstream "pitch-shifting" technology is just like the "color TV" in the TV industry. In 2005, only two prototypes were installed in domestic institutions using this technology. The technological gap with foreign countries is still widening.

In November 2005, the Resource Solutions Center in San Francisco, USA provided a "International Experience Report for the Promotion of Wind Power Industry Development" to the Energy Foundation China Sustainable Energy Project. The report draws several conclusions: an attractive local wind power development market It is a prerequisite for the strong development of domestic wind turbine manufacturing; domestic wind turbine manufacturing industry must rely on large and stable support for sustained market demand; indirect policies to create a large and stable wind power market is the key to promoting wind power development and wind turbine manufacturing Factors, for countries with high barriers to entry and difficulties in competing with leading international companies, direct policies are crucial to promote local production of wind turbines.

The indirect policies include fixed electricity prices, mandatory renewable energy targets, government bidding or concessions, fiscal and tax incentives, etc. Direct policies include localization rates, preferential local wind turbine manufacturing and localization rates, and tariff incentives. , export assistance support, certification and testing systems, etc.

In 2002, the State Development Planning Commission proposed a wind power concession bidding project in which the tenderer (ie the provincial government) had an on-grid electricity equivalent to a wind farm within 30,000 hours of full load, for example, 3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity for a 100,000 kilowatt wind farm. Fixed electricity prices. Shi Pengfei said that this is a very good thing that can drive the entire wind power industry. But who promised that the lowest price will be the winning bid, causing the actual bid price to be a price that causes the project to lose money. In 2003, Jiangsu Rudong 100,000-kilowatt wind power concession bidding project had a total of 6 investors bidding, among which 5 investors' bidding prices ranged from 0.61 yuan to 0.72 yuan per kWh, but the actual bidding price was only per kWh. 0.4365 yuan.

Shi Pengfei said that an enterprise can compete in the market by using low-price bidding. However, as the industry as a whole, using such low prices as the basis for the verification of electricity prices, this industry cannot be developed. Since then, it has completely gone according to the way of concession bidding. He pointed out that only one private enterprise has won the bid, while the rest are state-owned enterprises. The ultimate loser caused by the low electricity price is still the country.

He also believes that after the introduction of the "Renewable Energy Law", if the details of the detailed implementation rules, there is no need for franchise. However, the current "Trial Measures for the Management of Renewable Energy Power Generation and Cost Allocation", the industry's commonly-accepted implementation rules, is obviously subject to improvement in operability.

Li Baoshan also believes that the price of wind power is relatively low. Such a low price is not good for the development of the wind power industry. However, he stressed that the situation facing the current stage has created a franchise policy, perhaps it is not perfect enough in some respects, but it is conducive to industrial development in certain aspects. If you give a high price, the concession policy may be "difficulty." The current franchise standards are still changing, indicating that this work is constantly improving.

For example, Shi Pengfei cited Denmark. In the early 1980s, in addition to providing higher on-grid tariffs for wind power, he also gave users 30% subsidies for wind turbines and cultivated the wind power market. Today, 40% of the world's wind turbines are Imports from Denmark show the strategic significance of the policies of the time to the country. “The industry with such a weak wind power really shines a little on the sun. If this is not the case, the sun will be finished.” This “sunshine” is a stable market where wind power investments can be reasonably rewarded.