Europe’s know-how & China's might: towards wind energy communion (Feb 2010)
Release Date: 2010-02-04 00:00:00
The Copenhagen summit on climate changed consecrated a much-debated shift in the world’s economic and political balance. The essential points of a deal, which is to delineate the way we power our lives in the 21st century, were hammered out at a summit, which saw not only its European organisers and their traditional American allies, but also China, and other emerging economies, calling the shots.
Chapter 1
Europe’s know-how & China's might: towards wind energy communion
A power shift for a green revolution
Following the “economic miracle”, which saw average annual GDP growth exceeding 9% for some 30 years, China’s leadership has positioned the country on a trajectory to become a frontrunner in renewable energy initiatives, and an important global hub for low carbon industries in the coming decades. But China cannot afford to venture alone in this journey. The Chinese government has identified cooperation with Europe as crucial to accelerate technology development and advance the installation of renewable energy capacity in China. Europe will be China’s travel companion.
Moving air to plug up China’s energy needs
The Chinese economic miracle has been powered mainly by coal-generated electricity, with ominous consequences for the environment. As the country’s growth continues to demand more energy, and conventional sources are not just polluting but scarce, costly and volatile, China’s has dictated that renewable energy must account for 15% of the country’s energy sources by 2020. In 2008, the National Energy Administration highlighted wind energy as a priority for diversifying China’s energy mix, which combines the advantages of comparatively low cost and existing conditions for large-scale exploration. In sum, wind energy is considered the best option for China’s energy strategy.
He Dexin, Chairman of the Chinese Wind Energy Association, explained to GreentechFocus.com in an exclusive interview that “Although coal power still represents the bulk of our electricity (around 70%) in the long term its share should gradually decrease for two reasons: coal resources are decreasing gradually and the priority of the government has shifted towards clean and renewable solutions. The central government is now shutting down small thermal power plants and focusing on wind power and renewable energies. Also with rising coal prices, coal plants are not as attractive as they used to be.”
Even though there has been substantial growth in electricity generation from hydroelectricity and solar, wind power has emerged as the fastest growing segment of renewable energies. “Wind power now is one of the most promising sources of renewable energy. In China, the potential for wind power resource is huge and has already attracted much investment. The government also releases the policies to support it” adds Dexin.
As Arthouros Zervos, Chairman of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), and President of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) told GreenTechFocus.com “Today, China has a great need for power, which is mainly supplied by coal, but this has to change. My belief is that the Chinese government has realised that. [As a result] the country is annually installing the same wind power capacity that we have installed in Europe over the last 7 years.”
As a result China has become the world’s fastest growing wind-energy market with an average growth rate of 56% for the past 7 years. At the end of 2008 China’s yearly new installed capacity totalled 6.3 GW, doubling for the fourth year in a row and bringing the country’s cumulative wind power capacity to 12.2 GW, making China the fourth largest wind market in the world in that year. In 2009 China installed 10 additional GW of wind power becoming the third largest wind energy provider worldwide only behind USA and Germany and overtaking Spain, with the current total installed wind power capacity to 22 GW.
The expectations are high. According to the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA),China’s wind energy capacity is expected to reach 100 GW by 2020. The National Energy Administration selected six locations from the provinces with the best wind resources: Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Hebei and Jiangsu. Each site will have more than 10 GW of installed capacity by 2020. This large-scale wind energy deployment is called the 10 GW Size Wind Base Programme (Wind Base). Wind Base will ensure more than 100 GW of installed capacity producing 200 TWh per year by 2020. This is crucial to reach the Chinese government’s National Mid and Long-Term Development Plan of 3% non-hydro renewable electricity production by 2020.
High tech, high risk, high yield ... is there room for more turbine manufacturers?
Such figures and projections have resulted in a ´China Wind Rush´. Over the past years several wind turbine manufacturers, both foreign and domestic newcomers, entered the market bringing the current total number over 70, together with 50 companies in turbine blade manufacturing and over 100 wind-power tower manufacturers. Since no more that 10 to 13GW is expected to be installed annually in the coming years due to restrictions in the pace of the development of the electric grid, intensive competition in the market will result in consolidation.
The top three manufacturers in China, Goldwind, Sinovel and DEC (Dongfang Electric) have an annual manufacturing capacity of 4 GW, and the international brands manufacturing in China (Vestas, Suzlon, GE, Gamesa, Nordex and Repower) have a similar capacity. This means that there will be little market share left for the rest of the more than 60 manufacturers, unless the market expands further or they begin, as expected in the medium term, to export turbines in large numbers.
He Dexin confirms the trend: “Wind power is a high tech, high risk and high yield sector. According to the international experience, the wind power manufacturing sector will face concentration after it reaches a certain size and maturity. The companies lacking competitive strength will be eliminated by the market or merged into bigger entities.” It is said that fewer than 10 out of more than 100 manufacturers are likely to survive.
Qi Hescheng, Secretary General of the Chinese Wind Energy Equipment Association explains the winning formula: “The companies that will lead the Chinese wind industry in the future will be those with proprietary intellectual property rights and the ability to conduct in-house research and development. During the past years, Chinese wind power companies have experience quality problems. They have not paid attention to quality since the beginning, but they realized the importance of quality once they experienced the first problems that influenced their profit. Now Chinese companies are trying improving the quality of their products gradually. At the same time, they are learning about the market standards, rules and policies overseas, which help them to better understand the competitive situation in the European market.”
Global providers of state-of-the-art wind power technology and know-how, the vast majority of which are European, will be key in their endeavour.
In the Shadow of the Wind
With the fourth longest coastline in the world, some 18,000 kilometres, China is one of the richest countries in offshore wind resources. Counting 40% of the nation’s population, coastal provinces are also the most developed in China, and the largest consuming market for electricity.
According to China’s official estimates the country possesses 1,000 GW reserve of exploitable wind energy, of which 250 GW on land and 750 GW offshore, indicating the long term strategic importance of the China’s offshore wind potential.
However, matching this potential will require improving the sound development of the industry by means of importing advanced technology products and services. The National Energy Administration has even considered removing the restriction of 70% domestic-built wind turbines for China’s market. It is high time for well-qualified foreign enterprises to step into this boosting market, and international key players such as Siemens Wind Power are expanding their investment in the Chinese market.
Headquartered in Denmark and part of the German industrial giant, Siemens Wind Power is rapidly developing its international presence by opening manufacturing facilities in the US and China, particularly in the offshore sub sector with higher development potential.
Andreas Nauen, CEO of Siemens Wind Power explained the strategy in detail during an exclusive interview with GreenTechFocus.com: “China has always been part of our global strategy. Three years ago, when we first began the expansion of our activities beyond Denmark by establishing a blade factory in the US, we already said that the next step would be entering the Chinese market. We simply put our plan into action and we are progressing with our Chinese blades and nacelle factories. I am very confident that we will be very successful because Siemens is probably the only company in the world that is able to offer a portfolio ranging from [wind] power generation to transmission solutions in one shop.”
Siemens strategy for China is equally focused on the domestic market and on exports. With one-third of the world’s wind power capacity already installed in Asia, there is plenty of opportunity. “We see big sourcing potential in China and are already sourcing quite a number of towers from a Chinese supplier that we ship to the US for installation. The delivery was on time and the relationship has been continued, which is a sign that we are happy with the quality,” Nauen adds.
One of the purposes of this blades and nacelles factory is to enter the Chinese domestic market. “We had some very interesting discussions about the Chinese offshore market and I believe that we have to offer something in China that is different from what forty or fifty other companies can offer at the moment,” explains Nauen. Siemens Wind power wants to establish a clear leadership position in the offshore market in China, by applying its 19 years of experience in the offshore wind market for the benefit of China’s projects. “It is important to, have the right turbine, a reliable, high quality turbine that is large enough in size […] because offshore is a business that very much depends on reliability. To give you an example, a ship to replace a part costs US$ 100,000 a day, so you better install a turbine that does not need maintenance or repair too often otherwise all your profit is gone. [At Siemens] we have the knowledge, experience and the right product,” Nauen sentences.
In the race for supremacy, the company will not settle for a citation. “In all businesses Siemens wants to be among the top three in the world. When you are in the number six position in the world then it is pretty simple to discover the direction, and the question is how to get into the top three. Technology, quality, solidity and reliability have always been the trademarks of Siemens. I think that there is a chance to be as good and as big as some of the Chinese suppliers if we do it right. We have seen it in the fossil business where we have a very successful joint venture with Shanghai Electric, and if we can repeat that success in wind power I will be very proud,” Nauen concludes.
EUROPE
The wind industry to hit Europe with a sweeping blow
The European Union has 3.5% of the world’s proven coal reserves, less than 2% of the natural gas, less than 2% of its uranium and no more than 1% of the world’s oil, according to the European Commission. With such scarcity of mineral resources and such an energy-intensive society, it won’t come as a surprise to anybody that the Old Continent has turned its attention towards an intangible yet powerful source of energy blasting across its geography. Europeans have many names for them depending on whether they originate: Sciroccos, Tramontanas, Mistrals or Helms, but all of Europe’s winds are equally relentless, powerful and cheap.
“Today, wind energy is a mainstream option, and probably the cheapest way to produce electricity,” boasted Professor Arthouros Zervos, who serves both as Chairman of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and President of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). In March 2009, at the European Wind Energy Conference, he announced that EWEA had increased its 2020 target for installed wind energy capacity in the EU from 180 GW to 230 GW, including 40 GW offshore. Currently, wind power accounts for about 4.2% of the EU’s electricity demand, but the 2020 projection will enable wind power to meet 14-18% of EU electricity demand, which equals the electricity needs of about 135 million average EU households.
“EU companies hold 66% of the €35 billion global market for wind power technology, and we should urgently develop, promote and export it to the best of our ability,” emphasises Professor Zervos. “The European wind industry should aim to be present in as many markets as possible, and it should continue to drive the industry’s innovation process. The wind industry has globalised rapidly over the past five years, and the European wind turbine manufacturers will have to follow this trend.”
Denmark: The gift of experience
Of all European nations, Denmark is undeniably the cradle of the modern wind turbine industry, but in 1975 there was no indication that the country was heading for decades of industry dominance. The main reason for this was that the Danish Government stimulated the creation of a market when it passed a law that gave direct subsidies to investment in wind energy in 1979, which was also the year when Vestas, the global wind energy leader, started manufacturing wind turbines.
Even though similar activities were taking place in European countries such as the UK, The Netherlands, and Germany, the difference lied on the role of the state. The Danish government created market stimulation and established public R&D projects to develop prototypes of wind turbines.
As a result, today Denmark is the only country in the world to have achieved a penetration of wind energy of 20%, which will be the 2020 renewable energy target for the whole of Europe. Some say, however, that domestic support has been fainting forcing Danish wind energy companies to expand globally. Henrik Stiesdal, Siemens Wind Power’s Chief Technology Officer puts it like this: “The Danish Government has not sufficiently supported the wind power market in recent years. Today, the Danish wind industry is facing a challenging situation since its home market has disappeared.” As a result, Danes are venturing again beyond their borders and aggressively expanding operations overseas.
The presence of Danish companies in the globalised wind energy industry is palpable. In October 2009, the entire sector showed up in force at China Wind Power, the largest Chinese wind energy exhibition in Beijing, with many companies vigorously looking at entering the Chinese market or at consolidating and expanding their presence.
According to the Danish Wind Energy Group, part of the Danish Export Association and created by the leading Danish wind turbine manufacturers and subcontractors, the 70 windmill manufacturers in China exceeds the amount of windmill manufacturers in the rest of the world, paving the way for Danish sub-suppliers into the Chinese market. For these market possibilities to materialise, however, Danish companies have to remain a step ahead of their Chinese peers in technology and innovation, as the Chinese have proved adept at reproducing western products at a cheaper price. “Many of the sub-components they have copied are almost as good as the originals. However, they lack experience and don’t know what is going to happen when 100 different components are put together. This is where the Danish companies are a step ahead”, boasts confidently Ulrik Dahl, Managing Director of Danish Export Association.
Henning Gammelgaard Jensen, Chairman of the Danish Wind Energy Group adds; “Our turbine manufactures are facing the challenge of finding new customers; therefore they provide a lot of assistance to their suppliers as they follow them into international markets. We all have the mindset to grow both rapidly and internationally. We have invested a lot of hours, turbines and money in these last 30 years. It’s not just about putting few components together and then getting a turbine. This know-how is our competitive advantage to enter the Chinese market”.
This does not mean that Danish companies looks at China simply as a market to supply. On the contrary, as Ditlev Engel, CEO of Vestas the Danish N.1 wind turbine manufacturer in the world explained in an exclusive interview to GreenTechFocus.com, “As we expand our presence in China through building more factories, we also intend to become more engaged in China through increasing our activities on a variety of industry issues, such as building a China-based innovation capacity and establishing a larger technology and R&D presence here. We already have a great technology team working in China on our new kilowatt turbine and we hope that that team will be just the beginning of an increased R&D and technology presence in China. The team will contribute to the ongoing development of the Chinese wind energy industry and the localization of Vestas China. We are actually working also with various partners in China [for] a true win-win situation. The ongoing development of our suppliers in China and the partnerships we build with them brings a lot of benefit to overall wind energy development in China.”
Undoubtedly the “Danish wind case” and unique know-how is of great interest for the Chinese government and companies as showed in December 2009 when Wind Power Works, an initiative by the Global Wind Energy Council, received a Chinese delegation including Mr. Li Ganjie, the vice Minister of Chinese Environment Protection, to have a closer look at the off shore wind turbines at the Middelgrunden farm in Øresund outside Copenhagen. When it was built in 2000, it was the world's largest offshore farm, with 20 turbines and a capacity of 40 MW. The farm delivers more than 3% of the power to the Danish capital. According to Wind Power Works the delegation was very interested in the Danish model for integrating considerable amounts of wind energy into the power system, thus ensuring that wind energy is always used where most needed. Denmark has had success in integrating the otherwise tough-to-control wind energy into the power system, and this makes the Danish wind case very attractive.
With Denmark’s leading turbine manufacturers, Vestas and Siemens Wind Power, internationalising their operations, the highly developed Danish sub-supplier base are faced with the challenge of chasing their long time customers in the international marketplace. Having been a first-mover for three decades, the Danish wind industry is again well positioned to break new ground.
As Jan Hylleberg CEO of the Danish Wind Industry Association concludes “The Danish wind industry is ready to enter into a debate about how wind can be the solution in different parts of the world. We have the technology, the competence, and we are an integral part of the industry's R&D activities, so we can be a partner for countries like China to establish energy systems around the world where wind energy is integrated to reduce the amount of fossil-based energy production. Energy system planning and grid development are crucial for the future development of the wind industry, and we have the skills and knowledge to take this decision forward.”
Chapter 2
The giant with the feet of iron
Not many of us may yet have had the opportunity to see an offshore wind park at first hand. But, close your eyes and picture this: rows of towers up to 120 metres tall, with 60 metres-long blades sticking out in the middle of a sea storm. May sound futuristic but this is one of the realities of today’s wind power industry. Making sure that these super heavy structures cannot only stand but also maximize the effects of constant high-speed winds is a challenge, which begins at the very bottom, for the wind turbines need to be extremely well rooted.
The first Chinese offshore wind farm in Shanghai went online in 2009 as a demonstration project, followed by further ambitious plans to build more offshore wind farms in the costal provinces of Jiangsu， Zhejiang， Fujian，Guangdong and Shandong. It is estimated that Jiangsu province will establish the offshore wind farm with the total capacity of 7GW and Zhejiang province of 2.7 GW by the year of 2020. The Chinese offshore wind power industry cannot afford to become a giant with feet of clay. “The foundation of offshore wind turbines is often a monopile drilled or hammered into the sea bed. Each monopile is overlapped by a transition piece upon which the wind turbine is installed, and developing a sound connection of the two elements is both crucial and challenging,” says Finn Thor Hansen, CEO of Densit, a manufacturer of cement-based construction materials based in the north of Denmark’s Jutland Province. Of course, he immediately puts forward his company’s own solution: “Due to its extreme properties Ducorit, a cement-based special grout, has emerged as the most reliable and cost effective connection between the monopile and the transition piece, providing both strength and flexibility in design. It takes just 24 hours, he goes on to explain, for the mix to develop 50% of its strength, which is sufficient to mount the rest of the wind turbine. “
The development of the Densit ultra high strength cement based materials in the 1960s was unique, and patent applications for the Densit technology were filed in all major industrial countries in the world. Ducorit is the result of 25 years of technological development based on the Densit technology, as well as the company’s experience in the strengthening of offshore structures in the oil and gas industry.
“We really saw that there was tremendous opportunity to become an efficient and competitive foundation concept provider for offshore wind turbines, and today the wind industry makes up about 25% of our business,” emphasised Mr Hansen. “Since 2000, we have grouted transition pieces to driven monopiles at many wind farms and the concept has become the offshore industry’s preferred solution, covering more than 70% of the installed capacity today.”
Peter Gorlitz, Business Unit Manager of Densit Renewables Division explains further how the company has obtained quite a significant market share to date, producing high performance products required for wind turbine foundations. “Densit also does installations of products, lease-out of equipment and onsite quality control. It means that our customers and media contractors will get only one interface instead of having one interface for purchase of materials, another interface for installation and the third one for verification afterwards. If it is true that you need a low ground to connect the steel parts - and you can do that without Densit - our experience shows that you also need high performance products to do comprehensive connections, so our interpretation is that a high performance component is needed to produce good and solid foundations in China’s offshore wind as well.“ He notes that, however, Densit tries to tailor-make its products. “There’s a small gap between what we supply and what is used in China, and this resulted in launching Ducorit (or Q2) - a lower performance product but, again, a very strong one, as compared to what is normally used in the building industry. “
Densit has also recently started to make ground in the onshore wind industry. Alternative solutions like a rock socketed-monopile foundation, where steel piles are grouted into a socket drilled into the rock, have also proved extremely effective with Ducorit. “Considering our successful experiences with grout connections offshore, Densit has developed a Ducorit grout solution which connects onshore wind turbines directly into gravity foundations,” remarks Finn Thor Hansen. “As the wind industry gradually expands offshore, we will bring innovation to the onshore market.”
There is no Perfect Storm: atmospheric damage control
Sticking out like lonely towers whether in land or at sea, wind turbines - which are typically the tallest structures in a wind farm - have to be built to endure the charges of troubled waters as well as direct lightning strikes several times during their operating life. The lightning produces an intense electromagnetic field inducing transient over voltages throughout the turbine’s wiring system. These powerful electrical surges propagate through the wind turbines electrical system and can cause severe damage to equipment including power components (generators, transformers, power converters etc.), control electronics, communication and SCADA systems. Damage may be immediate or as a result of the cumulative effect of repetitive exposure.
Lightning strikes and volatile currents originating from normal operation create serious challenges for wind farm operators since replacement of the key power components – generators and transformers - is expensive. In many cases, access to wind farm sites may be restricted for weeks due to bad weather.
When it comes to offshore installations or plants in remote rural areas, transportation is often an extra burden. Service team costs are additional expenses, but the most significant impact on wind farm operators is definitely the loss of revenue during down time.
The industry is responding with more complex turbines as the expectation of runtime and availability increases. As Kim Bertelsen, Managing Director of Electricon, a Danish company specialised in protection solutions for electronic disturbance of wind turbines explains, “Larger damages are reported on blades and pitch system as well as on the main electrical components as generators, converters and transformers, where the lifetime is not meeting the demands of the industry. The downtime and consequential loss of production and revenue is reaching a crucial point as the units increase in power. The costs of repair and change of main components are increasing proportional to the wind turbine size and accessibility. When erecting wind turbines in remote areas or offshore the cost of these unexpected repairs can suddenly change the entire business case of the investment.”
Bertelsen proudly stresses that Electricon is well ahead in the game: “Generally we provide 10 years of warranty on our surge protection systems. Our philosophy is that our protection system should last longer than the system that it is intended to protect.”
Electricon believes that China is to play a major role in the company’s strategic plans for the future. It has already supplied the first designs to China, and plans to enhance its presence in Asian during 2010. “My personal advice to the leading Chinese manufacturer - volunteers Bertelsen - is to focus on reliable systems. Reliable concerning lightning protection, but also regarding high quality components with a long lifetime related to the wind turbine environment. By using our knowledge from Europe, the Chinese manufacturer will get faster to the market with reliable wind turbines – which will benefit the entire wind turbine industry. “
Spain: from tilting at windmills to embracing wind power
For Spain, a country erected over two high, breezy plateaus, the wind has always been an essential part of the way of life. Five centuries ago, the “molinos¨, or windmills in Spanish language, inspired one of the iconic images of world literature in Don Quixote´s delirious attack. Less surreal is, however, 21st century Spain’s relationship with the power of its modern propellers.
Spain is the world's fourth biggest producer of wind power, after the United States, Germany and China with an installed capacity of 16 740 megawatts (MW) at the end of 2008 and around 18,500 MW in 2009. By 2020 Spain is expected to more double its wind-power producing capacity from the current level of 18 GW to 40 GW.
According to the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE) wind power has become the country’s third source of energy with 36.188 GWh in 2009, only after thermal with 78.364GWh and nuclear with 52.741 GWh. The overall wind energy power production in 2009 covered 14,3 % of the national electricity demand against 11,5 % in 2008. Not only that but the Spanish wind power industry broke a record on November 2009, when at a given time turbines nationwide met 53% of the nation's demand for electricity with production of around 10,170 megawatts (MW), covering over 50% of the demand that ranged between 21,700 MW and 19,700 MW.
Unsurprisingly, the Spanish wind turbine producer Gamesa is today one of the few truly global players, with 50% of market share in Spain, and the aim to match this achievement in other markets, including China.
As Guillermo Ulacia, who was CEO of Gamesa, until late 2009, explained in an exclusive interview with GreenTechFocus.com why entering China has been both a challenge and an opportunity for Gamesa “Three years ago, we selected both China and the US as top priorities in our internationalization process. Subsequently we opened manufacturing facilities in both China and the US. In China, our towers are produced by a Chinese supplier, but we produce our own blades, generators, nacelles and gearboxes at our manufacturing centre in Tianjin. We are considering China both as a wind power market as well as a component sourcing platform for both the domestic market and the export market.”
The Spanish industry firmly believes to be particularly suited to accompany the development of the Chinese wind energy market as explained by Ramon Fiestas, Secretary General of the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE): “The Spanish case in terms of wind power deployment is really different from that of Germany and Denmark. What has been done in Spain were huge investments by utilities and electricity companies, taking into consideration that more that 60% of the market share of wind power plants in Spain belongs to utilities. It means that the approach to wind power in Spain is a large-scale generation approach in terms of big wind farms and big wind power areas that are supplying large-scale electricity to the system. In that sense, the Chinese development is much closer to our economic model in terms of wind power deployment. It means that the Spanish industry and the Spanish investments in wind power in China have got the experience of large-scale wind power electricity generation plants and it is probably much closer to the power needs and the way of deployment in China.” Spaniards offer, in the same package, the technological, the capital provider and the promotional development expertise and, even, their regulatory dexterity.
One Spanish region stands out for its accomplishments in wind power: Castilla-La Mancha, scene of Don Quixote´s adventures, with 25% of the wind energy national production, not only leads in installed wind power capacity but also excels in its know-how in wind power production management as explained by Paula Fernadez Pareja, Castilla-La Mancha Minister of Industry, Energy and Environment: ”The experience of creating wind energy parks [in Castilla-La Mancha] has proven that wind energy - which is quite worrisome for the operators of electric grids - can be manageable. Renewable energies do not provide a response for the immediate needs: for instance, a thermal or nuclear power plant starts working when there’s energy demand. A wind station works when there’s wind, thus creating a complementary difficulty. But investigation and new technologies allow us to predict, 48 hours in advance, the amount of electricity that we’ll be able to put on the market generated by wind energy. There is an Iberdrola’s private research centre in the city of Toledo, which controls all the wind energy parks allowing predictions that almost coincide with actual operation. I think that this technology and this experience make us special. Therefore, we’re in a position to offer a lot because we have the technological and environmental knowledge, and we can make it compatible with the needs of the [Chinese] market.”
Quality and mastery as a vision of the future
If Europe led the way in pioneering wind power technology over the last 30 years, China is to be the 21st century’s powerhouse, the largest producer and consumer of it. The GWEC predicts that in 2013, global wind generating capacity will have reached 332 GW, primarily driven by tremendous growth in China and steady expansion in Europe and North America. China is set to be the biggest wind energy market in term of total installed capacity in the forthcoming years as the country sets the target of 100 GW of wind power capacity by 2020. However, Europe’s talent will prove pivotal in China’s quest to reach its goals and shape the future of the world industry. The destiny of both will be realised in one common objective: quality.
Bruce Douglas, Chief Operating Officer at the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) clearly and constructively depicts Europe’s current and future role in the Chinese wind power industry: “In the coming years China will certainly drive wind energy globally as we will see exports from manufacturers [in China] to the wider world, even into Europe. We can bring technology leadership, knowledge and experience of what we have done in Europe not just in manufacturing but also in consortium development, financing, support mechanisms, access to the grid, and the building of the infrastructure. All those things we have been through in Europe, and we would like to duplicate our best practice in China in order to accelerate the development of wind energy. What we offer is a service to provide information, support and experience to China to develop wind power to its full extent. The European companies are there already; they have manufacturing bases, and would like to work alongside and with the Chinese to develop wind power for the benefit of everyone (...) China will be a global leader in installed capacity and manufacturing. We see China as one of the leaders, if not the leader, in terms of the manufacturing of wind turbines in five to ten years.”
The Chinese side could not agree more. According to Wu Gang, Chairman of Goldwind, the biggest Chinese wind turbine manufacturer, in three to five years Chinese wind turbine producers will occupy 20% of the global market share and for that they must optimise their technologies and meet turbine authentication standards of foreign countries.
Better quality may affect prices, but for Arthouros Zervos, Chairman of GWEC, it will be good news for everyone: “We have realised that Chinese manufacturers are competing with prices that are lower than those of the international manufacturers producing in China. However, we always need to consider quality, and I think that the Chinese government and the Chinese manufacturers have already begun to realize this. The cost is not just the purchase amount, but also includes the maintenance cost for the turbine during its lifetime. If the Chinese manufacturers want to enter international markets, they will have to compete not only in price, but also in quality, and this will raise prices. They may still end up being cheaper at the end of the day, which could have a positive effect as it will keep prices lower in the sector.”
Paraphrasing leading theoretical physicist and futurist Dr Michio Kaku, the 21st century is to become the “Age of Mastery, a period in which we will move from being passive observers of nature to its active choreographers.“ The power of wind will certainly be one of our lead dancers.
Note: Since the interview, Mr. Guillermo Ulacia has stepped down as CEO of Gamesa