Wind, the enhanced Energy Source in China
Summary
The fact that wind power alone could supply energy to the entire China is possible as long as overhaul over rural grids and subsidies are raised for wind energy. New technology applied in the industry is cost effective and clean, as it emits future green house gases. As the demand of the nation for energy is increasing, more demand for wind energy is also rising. This puts the country in a risky state as continued use of coal and electricity results to high production costs and environmental challenges. Great production companies have invested in the wind sector to offer alternative energy source to the country. Among these is the Goldwind from Xinjiang province in China, which is focused in turbine manufacture, has led to the development of the technology in the country and expanded market share. It holds 19% of the shares in the industry followed by Guodian United Power Technology Company. The major wind farms in the nation are Shanghai New International Exhibition Center, Nanhui Wind farm, the Qinjian Bay and the Chonjming Dongtan wind farms.
Variation of atmospheric pressure differences results to wind. Its speed vary in terms of geography, topography, and season resulting to better suited regions for generation than in other regions. In Offshore, wind speeds tend to be higher than in vegetative, buildings and mountain regions. In applying wind energy, natural wind is captured in the environment and converts the air’s movements to mechanical energy. Technological advancement led to introduction of a turbine; a mechanism with a large structure for converting air movement to electricity. Several blades are attached to an electro-magnetic generator that produces electricity when the wind makes the blades to spin.
Wind energy is a form of renewable energy that is clean and lacks carbon emission and other air pollutants in its production. It has low operations and maintenance costs other than the initial construction and the energy does not consume water. The major challenge in the production is the problem of transmission capacity of the grid, which has prevented China’s development of the farms. Only 72%, which translates to 8.94 GW of the entire wind power energy connected to the grid. Slowdown of the Chinese economy has resulted to overcapacity of the power industry, thereby reducing demand. Firstly, wind speeds vary all through the year and the day, resulting to intermittency concerns with power grids. The price tag for the power is culturally higher than the conservative electricity production sources. Even though, the cost curve has declined extensively recently, there are some concerns like land use, bird disruption and noise, that have been raised in some regions in China.
(Source: Cusick, 2016)
Recommendations
To establish the viability of the wind industry, a study was conducted, which established economic model on a location with a bidding process. Instead of increasing carbon dioxide emissions by 3.5 gigaton annually, the study established that wind energy would replace more than 640 GW of coal-fired power, reducing carbon emissions by 30%. This process would however require more than US $ 900 billion (WorldWatch, 3). Given the present dimension of China and its scale of investments, wind energy is perceived the best alternative form of energy production in the country. Additionally, extensive regions in the northern and western sides such as Inner Mongolia and Tibet provinces have higher capacity of generating this energy. To reduce the present excessive demand for power capacity, the government should encourage utilization of renewable energies to halt construction of coal power plants.
Introduction
China is identified as a world leader in wind energy due to its large installed capacity and development in wind facilities. As a major component in growth of the country’s economy, wind energy in the region is able to meet all electricity demands by 2030 (Cusick, 2). This practice has however not been applied due to limited research conducted on the topic and lack of remarkable construction capacity. The study describes the pros and the cons of this technology and approach based on my research.
Background
Goldwind from Xinjiang province in China is the main turbine manufacture, established in 1998. The industry has led to the development of the technology in the country and expanded market share. Goldwind holds 19% of the shares in the industry followed by Guodian United Power Technology Company. China Longyuan Electric Power Group Corp, a pioneering company in wind farm operation holds 40% of the wind farms in the country (Gow, 3). The department seeks to diversify energy industry from its oil and gas industry by encouraging companies to cooperate and motivate international companies to develop offshore wind farms. The major wind farms in the nation are Shanghai New International Exhibition Center that produces 5% of the energy needs, Nanhui Wind farm, the Qinjian Bay and the Chonjming Dongtan wind farms. Others include Lingang New Town 7 MW and the Huadong Eastern China power grid. The three 18 wind turbines are to produce 24.4 MW comprehensively.
Wind is a result of variation of differences in atmospheric pressure and its speed vary in terms of geography, topography, and season. Hence, some regions are better suited for the generation than in others. Offshore, wind speeds tend to be higher than in vegetative, buildings and mountain regions. Near the coast and In applying wind energy, natural wind is captured in the environment and converts the air’s movements to mechanical energy. Conventionally, wind energy was used in milling grains and pumping of water, unlike in recent periods where the energy has been useful in the production of electricity, hence a highly significant component in the supply of electricity. Recently, technological advancement led to introduction of a turbine, the mechanism with a large structure for converting air movement to electricity. Several blades are attached to an electro-magnetic generator that produces electricity when the wind makes the blades to spin.
China is perceived the largest wind resources worldwide with three-quarters of wind farms being offshore. Other than United States, Germany, Spain, China was stated to be the fourth largest producer in 2008. Its production in that year was approximated as 12.2 GW, whereas, the entire capacity is about 26 GW. From 2010, China rose to become among the best producers of the wind turbines, producing 1.5 MW and 2 MW. Small-scale wind turbines have been in the recent past increased to 80 MV. China wind industry remains unaffected by he international financial crisis in 2008.
Initially, the government of China targeted around 10 GW by 2010 but already approximately 25.1 GW by 2010. The government is presently aiming for more than 100 GW by 2020. The government is presently encouraging foreign companies to invest in the production to meet the nation’s target. This industry’s main challenge is the failure to maintain construction of the power capacity. The major wind farms, Donghai Bridge and Longyuan Rudong Intertidal Wind farms. Donghai Bridge was the initial farm, established in April 2009, near Donghai Bridge to produce electricity for the 2010 Shangahi Expo. This farm has 34 Sinovel 3 MV wind turbines at approximately US$ 102 million (Gow, 9). Longyuan Rudong Intertidal Wind farm initial cost of production was approximately 500 million ¥. The offshore wind energy has great potential. However, it is not growing as expected. Recently, US generated more electricity from wind despite the low generation capacity due to China’s connectivity and grid capacity problems. The major problem of this wind power generation is ineffective connectivity of the power grid.
Benefits
Wind energy is clean and renewable as there are missing carbon emission and other air pollutants in its production. During the production process, the energy does not consume water. Wind has low operations and maintenance costs other than the initial construction. Wind industry is likely to grow at a higher rate than the rest of the energy industries due to stipulated policies favoring the industry. Among the policies is the 10-year policy granted for renewable energy and guarantees its subsidy. Clarification has been made in the renewable energy sector, which differentiates wind energy tariffs from the rest of energy sources all through the region. tax rebates have also been issued to turbine manufacturers; an encouraging move for foreign investors to advance the production sector in the region.
According to the Energy Blur Paper policy in China, the normal recovery rate of coal and mining is approximately 30%, which is less than half the normal rate of the recovery all through the world. The low rate recovery process of these energy sources have led to safety problems in the sector. The industry is besides faced with the issues of small-scale mining, which has largely affected energy conservation. According to the Department of Science, and Technology, climatic change is likely to affect Asian countries negatively. To overcome these domineering challenges, renewable forms of energy such as wind have been encouraged. Other than the production cost, the wind energy sector is expected to grow at significant rate due to low costs and high profit return.
Challenges
Several disadvantages are usually experienced in the production process of the energy. Firstly, wind speeds vary all through the year and the day, resulting to intermittency concerns with power grids. The price tag for the power is culturally higher than the conservative electricity production sources. Even though, the cost curve has declined extensively recently, there are some concerns like land use, bird disruption and noise, that have been raised in some regions in China. Another challenge in the production of this energy is the problem of transmission capacity of the grid, which has prevented China’s development of the farms. Only 72%, which translates to 8.94 GW of the entire wind power energy connected to the grid. Slowdown of the Chinese economy has resulted to overcapacity of the power industry, thereby reducing demand. Additionally, the windiest regions are sparsely populated with low electric demands. This results to high voltage transmission lines to connect the areas with high consumer demand for the power. Present wind farms are striving to incorporate into grid, with motivation from the energy policy. However, absence of physical grid capacity has limited the energy to reach its consumers.
EAPS 327 Policy brief project worksheet
Name: Qian Zheng
Date: 2/2/16
Question One
The selected topic is wind energy, an advanced technology from Old Holland to farms in the United States, where windmills have been employed for pumping water or grinding grain. Presently, a wind turbine is the modern equivalent of the windmill. Windmill use energy derived from wind to generate electricity by mounting on a tower to capture the most energy.
Question Two
Ministry of Energy in the Chinese government. The government of China remains my audience. China rarely employs green energy like wind energy or solar energy. Formerly coal energy was used, which have profound effects on the environment. It is necessary to improve our technology to create better environment for us.
Question Three
China has a variety of landform. Hence, we are more likely to use wind energy as our main power.
Question Four
The major resource to be employed in researching this topic is valid internet sources
Question Five
Other than internet sources, I would use an employee of a Chinese energy company whom I know quite well.
Works Cited
Cusick, Daniel. “China Blows Past the U.S. in Wind Power: Reducing air pollution is a bigger incentive than lowering carbon emissions. Scientific American. 2016. February.
Gow, David. “Wind power becomes Europe’s fastest growing energy source“. London: Guardian. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
WorldWatch. Wind Energy Could Power China, Study Finds. 2016. April 17th
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6255