{"id":33965,"date":"2016-05-31T13:23:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-10-19T18:04:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T18:04:19","slug":"8965-blowing-in-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/energy\/8965-blowing-in-the-wind\/","title":{"rendered":"Blowing in the wind"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a particularly windy day in Jiuquan city,\u00a0northwestern China, and yet most of the turbines at the\u00a0Longyuan\u00a0Wind Plant are motionless. The giant blades are paralysed\u00a0as if they have broken down.<\/p>\n

Inside the control room\u00a0the manager is on the phone with someone from the local grid. He is trying to get permission to turn on the blades\u00a0given the favourable weather conditions.<\/p>\n

The grid employee remains unmoved:<\/p>\n

\u201cStick to the quota. Do not exceed one tenth of your capacity,\u201d he replies.<\/p>\n

This is a scene from a\u00a0broadcast by\u00a0CCTV <\/a>in early April. It\u2019s probably the first time that China\u2019s state television station\u00a0has looked into the wind curtailment issue. But wind plants nationwide are all too familiar with the problem.<\/p>\n

Thanks to huge investment and policy support, China has emerged as the world\u2019s top wind-generating country. Wind project investments\u00a0exceeded 99.3 billion yuan (US$16 billion) by the end of 2014, surpassing any other energy sources, according to China\u2019s Wind Energy Association (CWEA). But a huge proportion of this additional\u00a0capacity remains\u00a0unused. The integration of wind generation has lagged behind capacity expansion, resulting in appalling waste.<\/span><\/p>\n

See also:<\/strong> How China can stop wasting wind energy<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting worse\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curtailments have plagued China\u2019s wind power industry for years but concerns peaked last year.<\/p>\n

According to China\u2019s Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA)<\/a>, the country\u2019s average wind curtailment rate stood at a record high of 15% in 2015.<\/p>\n

In wind-rich northern provinces such as Gansu, Ningxia or Heilongjiang, rates soared to 60%.<\/p>\n

Up to 33.9 billion kWh of wind electricity failed to connect to the grid, leading to 18 billion yuan (US$ 2.8 billion) of losses.<\/p>\n

\"map<\/a>
\nTable 1: Wind curtailment rates and efficiency of wind capacity in 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

In only five years, China\u2019s unused wind power has amounted to 100 billion kWh, equal to the combined output per year\u00a0of the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhou Dam\u00a0(the country\u2019s top two hydropower stations).<\/span><\/p>\n

Legal weapons <\/strong><\/p>\n

The situation has got so bad that the CWEA<\/a> has filed lawsuits against some local governments which they accuse of protectionism in favour of vested coal interests.<\/p>\n

Specifically, government departments and local grid dispatchers in Xinjiang, Gansu and Yunnan have been accused of exerting administrative power to disrupt wind production.<\/span><\/p>\n

Qin Haiyan, secretary general of CWEA, explained that protective measures adopted in these provinces include: levying charges on wind power companies to compensate coal plant owners; and reducing the purchasing price of renewable electricity (thereby making it harder for the industry to earn profits).<\/p>\n

This, it’s claimed,\u00a0violates the ‘guaranteed purchase principle’ in China\u2019s Renewable Energy Law. <\/a><\/p>\n

Effective since February 2005, the Renewable Energy Law stipulates in Article 4, Item 14, that local grids should sign contracts with renewables generators to buy up all of the power that can be supplied, within the grid\u2019s coverage. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The law sounds like good news but lacks the punitive powers needed to implement\u00a0obligatory purchases.<\/p>\n

\"C:\\Users\\Li<\/a>
\nTable 2: wind+PV capacity vs. wind+PV generation<\/span><\/p>\n

Super network <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Technical difficulties are also responsible\u00a0for wind curtailments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of China\u2019s wind and solar resources are concentrated in sparsely-populated and remote areas in the north and west. To transfer electricity generated in those areas to energy-hungry coastal cities in the east, long distance transmission capacity is needed.<\/p>\n

To address this, China plans to upgrade transmission lines and build the world\u2019s most capable ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission network.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lines that transmit 800 kilovolts or more are usually considered UHV lines. China aims big; its UHV network aims to handle over 1,000 kilovolts.<\/p>\n

According to the National Energy Administration<\/a>, a total of 12 such UHV transmission lines are being built to connect the northwestern provinces and coastal areas.<\/p>\n

The latest addition is a line running from the <\/span>Changji Prefecture<\/a> in Xinjiang to Xuancheng city in east China\u2019s Anhui province.<\/p>\n

The line, which is 3,324 kilometres long, is designed to accommodate currents of 1,100 kilovolts. Expected to go online in 2018, it will be the world\u2019s longest UHV line.. <\/span><\/p>\n