Eastern coastal wind power development will become a new growth point for wind power development this year

The reporter recently learned from the National Energy Administration that during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the state will promote the construction of large-scale wind power bases in an orderly manner, focusing on the development of 10 million kilowatt-class wind power bases in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, and Northeast China, and will also accelerate the development of offshore wind power. Experts said that this means that China’s wind power development has gradually shifted from land-based wind power to land-sea wind power. The development of wind power in the eastern coast will become a new growth point for wind power development this year.

According to the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, the coastal areas of Gansu, Hebei, Jilin, Mengdong, Mengxi, and Jiangsu in the 7 million-kilowatt wind power bases in China should be basically completed. In 2011, China will start construction of 5 million kilowatts of second phase of Jiuquan in Gansu Province, 2 million kilowatts of Hami in Xinjiang, 2 million kilowatts of Kailuo in Inner Mongolia, and 1.5 million kilowatts of Jilin Tongyu Wind Power Project; at the same time, Jiangsu will start a new 1 million kilowatt offshore wind power project. We will vigorously promote offshore wind power projects in Hebei, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Fujian, and strive to achieve 55 million kilowatts of grid-connected wind turbines. We will also step up construction of the second phase of Shanghai Donghai Bridge offshore wind power project.

Another newspaper was informed that relevant personages of the National Energy Administration recently stated that Shandong has already entered the national wind power development plan as the country's eighth largest wind power base to overall coordinate and will build around the Shandong coastal area. Industry sources said that this undoubtedly added important weight to the development of offshore wind power in China.

Shandong Province’s “Blue Peninsula Economic Zone Development Plan for Shandong Peninsula” launched at the end of January this year saw that in the next step, Shandong will focus on the construction of seven large-scale coastal wind power bases in the coastal areas and the north of Lubei, Laizhou Bay, Langzhong, Longdao and Shandong Peninsula. Shandong Peninsula South 6 million kilowatts of offshore wind power base. By the end of the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” period, wind power bases in the north of Shandong, Laizhou Bay, Langzhong, Longdao and Shandong Peninsula were basically completed, and wind farms were constructed in the areas with better conditions in the south of Shandong Peninsula. The installed capacity of offshore wind power reached 10 million kilowatts.

At present, offshore wind power has become an international trend, and European countries have a large scale of wind power generation. In 2010, the new offshore wind power interconnection capacity in Europe reached 883MW (9.5% of new wind power installed capacity in the EU), which was a year-on-year increase of 51.72%; 1136 offshore wind turbines were installed in total, and the combined grid capacity was 2,964MW, an increase of 24.43% over the same period of last year.

From the perspective of cumulative market share of offshore wind power, the UK maintains its leading position, while offshore wind power in Denmark, Germany and Belgium have all experienced significant growth in 2010. According to the forecast of the European Wind Energy Association: By 2011, the new offshore wind power grid capacity will be 1000MW-1500MW. In 2015, the installed capacity of offshore wind power will reach 80 million KW.

Shi Pengfei, deputy director of the Wind Energy Professional Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society, told the China United Daily News that the rapid development of offshore wind power in Europe has important implications for the development of offshore wind power in China. The expansion of offshore wind power pilot areas will increase the demand for wind power equipment, and the overall wind power installation plan may exceed expectations. A reporter from China United Business Daily learned from the China Wind Energy Association that in the period to come, China's annual installed capacity of wind power will exceed 30 million kilowatts, and offshore wind power will exceed 4 million to 5 million kilowatts per year.