Wind power to account for 3 pct of China's power output by 2015 - SERC
Shanghai. December 5. INTERFAX-CHINA - Wind power is expected to account for more than three percent of China's total power output by 2015, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) forecast Dec. 3.
According to the commission's China Wind Power Safety Monitoring Report, by 2015 China will house some 100 gigawatts (GW) of wind power installed capacity capable of producing 190 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity annually.
Over the first 10 months of the year, China produced 58.3 TWh of wind power, a 56.9 percent year-on-year increase and 1.5 percent of the country's aggregate power output, according to SERC statistics.
China, currently the world's largest wind power producer in terms of installed capacity, houses 486 operational wind farms with a combined installed capacity of 39.24 GW, according to the report.
While the wind power industry has seen explosive growth over the past five years, problems continue to plague the sector, senior wind power industry consultant Miao Hailong in Beijing told Interfax.
"Wind power waste stemming from insufficient power grid connections for wind farms in remote regions continues to afflict the industry," said Miao.
For example, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was unable to exploit roughly six TWh of wind power output last year due to inadequate grid connections, said Miao, noting that the region's unused wind power production could reach as much as eight TWh by the end of this year.
The SERC is targeting wind power waste in its latest report with plans to boost local consumption of wind-derived power in major wind power producing regions. The report also mentions plans to increase investment in long-distance transmission lines. However, investment details were not disclosed in the report.
"Wind power waste is a major problem in Inner Mongolia," Xin Shuzhi from the Inner Mongolia Renewable Energy Association told Interfax. "Economic incentives for power grid operators must be improved to increase the number of transmission lines in remote areas. Furthermore, advances in storage technology must be researched to increase wind farm efficiencies," he said.
Xin is confident that China's rich wind resources will provide the necessary incentive to continue the expansion of the clean energy source.
According to National Energy Administration (NEA) estimates, China has 2.38 TW of exploitable onshore wind resources and 200 GW of exploitable offshore wind power resources.
-WV