E i

Catching the

wind Clean and sustainable solutions energy shortfall

China’s ambitious power development programme has created a

huge increase in power generation over the past two decades lead-

ing to a GNP growth rate the envy of most of the Asia-Pacific

region. However, the price paid for a fast expanding electricity

industry has been a heavy one due to China’s heavy reliance on

coal and the fact that only a small number of coal-fired stations

have been fitted with full environmental protection equipment

facilities so far. Refocus correspondent, provides an

update on how China is using windpower and other renewables to

cater for increased energy demand in a sustainable way.

Currently coal accounts for about 67% of

primary commercial energy consumption

and about. 75% of total electricity gencrat-

ed. Coal aiso is used to fuei industrial and

commercial boilers and is burned by many

people in their homes. Hydroelectric power

is the second largest source of power gener-

ation accounting for about 20% of total

power generation followed by oil-fired sta-

tions. Nuclear power accounts for 1% of

power output.

Major clean-up programme Since the mid-1990s China has embarked

on a major programme to clean up its elec-

tricity industry. Large investments already

have been made in retrofitting old coal-

fired stations with eIlvir~nmel~ta1 protec-

tion equipment. Small, inefficient coal-

fired plants under 5OMW are being shut

down while new coal-fired stations must be

built with space for these facilities to be

installed at a later date if a budget is not

allocated for the equipment to be installed

for the power plant start up.

The State Power Corporation (SP) oper-

ated power plants totalling 221 ,OOOMW

installed capacity that accounted for 69%

of China’s total 319,OOOMW installed

capacity at the end of 2000. According to

the SF’ several billion yuan was invested

during the 9th Five Year Plan (1996-2000)

retrofitting coal-fired stations with electro-

static precipitators to prevent fly ash dis-

charge and to reduce pollution from waste

water discharge. SP alone undertook a total

of 3 18 electrostatic precipitator retrofitting

projects and 166 waste water saving pro-

jects. In spite of progress so far, because of

the size and cost of the power industry

clean up programme, China still has a long

way to go before atmospheric pollution is

greatly reduced. By the end of 2000 the

combined capacity of generating sets in

China installed with desulph~lrisation facil-

ities was just 5,OOOMW (compared with

China’s coal-fired capacity of about

240,OOOMW) of which 70% belonged to

ST’ plants. At the same time desulphurisa-

tion projects a~nounting to a further

5,OOOMW installed capacity were under-

way at the end of 2000.

to China's

Emissions still likely to grow Lacking alternative indigenous fuel

resources to challenge the dominance of

coal as the fuel of choice this century for

China’s power industry will mean that

emissions of SOz, NOx, TSP, and green-

house gases (GHGs) such as carbon diox-

ide (C02) and methane (CH4) will con-

tinue to grow.

In fact, the annual economic cost of

heahh problems and agricultural loss asso-

ciated with coal related air pollution

already is considerable. Reducing environ-

mental damage from coal use recently has

become a high priority for the govern-

ment, belatedly becoming aware of the

serious deterioration in air quality in

almost all leading cities during the past

decade.

Today nine of the ten cities with the

worst air pollution in Asia and five of the

ten worst air polluted cities in the world

are in China, based on the W’orld Health

Organisation’s total suspended particulate

(TSP) guidelines. In fact, air quality is

poor in all of China’s industrial cities.

Annual premature deaths, compared with

life expectancy, related to excessively high

‘I’SP concentrations currently are estimat-

ed at about 150,000 in urban areas.

According to estimates based on govern-

ment figures, China currently accounts for

more than 10% of annual global related

GHG emissions, mainly of CO, and

methane. According to government fore-

casts continued economic growth and the

planned increase in coal-fired g~nerarioI1 is

likely to be accompanied by a three fold

increase in GHCs emissions by 2020.

18 N~vember/D~ceinber 2002 RE- . www.re-focumet

FEATURE - CATCHING THE WIND

Mitigation measures To prevent the situation from worsening the

government recently has adopted a new pol-

icy initiative and now considers develop-

ment of other non-coal based energy essen-

tial to limit coal use and growing GHC

emission. As part of plans to clean up urban

coal-related pollution the Chinese govern-

ment is looking at developing a clean ener-

gy programme involving non-coal burning

power plants large enough to supply elec-

tricity to the regional grids.

According to the government’s Tenth

Five Year Plan (2001 to 2005) China will

increase the use of renewable energy

resources to account for 5% of total power

output. In fact, this target has almost

already been met. Maintaining this pro-

gramme will create a stiff challenge for

China. The World Bank has estimated that

power stations totalling about 18,OOOMW

in installed capacity will need to be built

over the next 10 years to maintain the tar-

geted 5% share of renewable energy in the

power supply mix. China’s renewable ener-

resources comprise small-scale

gdropower, wind power, biomass, solar

and geothermal energy. Today these are

used mostly in rural areas. Compared with

the available potential, the use of renewable

energy is relatively small.

Until now only about 18,700MW of

China’s total estimated 350,OOOMW

renewable energy potential has been har-

nessed. Of this, most of it, about

16,OOOMW, has been developed as small

hydropower schemes. Apart from small

hydropower projects, wind power offers

considerable potential in China where the

installed wind power capacity stood at a

mere 375MW at the end of 2000 com-

pared with the country’s huge estimated

160,OOOMW wind power potential. China

plans to install 1,192MW of wind power

in the 10th Five Year Plan, a target some

observers consider too ambitious due to

the small size of wind power units and the

large number that need to be installed to

achieve the target. Xinjiang is the leading

wind power province so far with

103.6MW installed capacity at the end of

2000 followed by Guangdong with

66.5MW installed capacity. Elsewhere, in

Inner Mongolia wind farm facilities

totalling about 50MW were in service.

According to the government’s plan about

three to five large wind farms, including off-

shore wind farms, will be built by 2005,

each about 1OOMW installed capacity.

Other smaller wind farms will be built

across the country in more than 10

provinces and autonomous regions includ-

ing Guangdong, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Inner

Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Shanghai

and Xinjiang. The government’s plan is to

make medium and large scale wind farms

ranging from 15MW to about 1OOMW in

size competitive with the long run marginal

cost of electricity generation. “The problem

is that wind power is expensive, so it will

need strong government support,” com-

mented the sales manager of one European

power equipment company, “Xinjiang and

Inner Mongolia are the main wind power

resource areas; also Guangdong. China can

also build offshore projects. The govern-

ment should have a more favourable policy

to develop wind power but it does not want

to subsidise only the richer regions. If wind

power is subsidised then the government

must take money from other areas of

planned expenditure.”

Incentives and support To encourage wind power development the

government plans to introduce a certification

system for wind power generating units to

help the industry develop under internation-

al technical standards. In addition wind

prone areas without wind farms will be

encouraged to develop wind farms in future.

Until now the development of wind power

farms in China has not been carried out in a

systematic and coordinated manner. Most

wind power farms have been financed by

bilateral grants and concessionary loans from

foreign governments. Consequently support

from bilateral and multilateral funding agen-

cies such as the Asian Development Bank

and the World Bank is considered essential

for wind farms to make a break through in

China and play a bigger role in power gener-

ation. Bilateral and multilateral funding

agency support is also necessary to help build

up the domestIc wind turbine manufactur-

ing industry to produce equipment at lower

cost than imports. Currently Denmark,

Germany and Spain have sizeable pro-

grammcs supporting the development of

wind farms in China. Indeed, the three

countries appear to have financed about half

of China’s present wind power capacity.

Bilateral assistance generally is provided

for wind farmers smaller than 20MW in

installed capacity. Assistance is usually tied

to procurement of wind turbines from the

country providing the financing. Denmark

has the largest wind farm programme in

China and has financed construction of nine

wind farms with a capacity of about

142MW. In addition the Danish govern-

ment has proposed funding four more wind

farms totalling about 120MW over the next

three years. Germany has provided financ-

ing for six wind farms totalling about

58MW. Of these, four wind farms totalling

36MW are believed to have been complet-

ed. Spain has provided various credits for the

construction of about seven wind farms

totalling about 20MW capacity combined.

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to support

the development of wind power in China

the Manila-based. Asian Development Bank

recently approved a US$58 million loan to

cover the foreign exchange costs of building

three wind farms totalling 78MW installed

capacity that will be connected to regional

power grids. Apart from reducing pollution

in their localities and providing additional

power output, the three wind power pro-

jects are expected to serve as showcase pro-

jects to help China in planning and con-

structing other grid-connected wind farm

schemes in future.

20 November/December 2002 REs ai.+, . . www.re-formnet

FEATURE - CATCHING THE WIND

Prime wind sites Over the years, the Chinese government has

identified various regions with wind belts in

which wind farms can be developed. ‘l‘he

first is the northern wind belt, which runs

from north-northeast of Xinjiang to the

middle and northern part of Inner Mongolia

and then through the middle of

Heilongjiang Province into Northern Korea.

The second wind belt is the coastal wind belt

beginning from the coast near Hainan Island

in the South China Sea which travels north

through Fujian and Zhejiang provinces to

Shanghai and into Hebei, Shandong and

Liaoning provinces. The proposed sites for

the three wind power projects are situated in

these two wind belts. The wind turbines and

towers will be installed over areas ranging

from170 to 210 hectares.

The largest of the three schemes, a

30MW wind farm, will be built at

Dabancheng No 3 site, about 40km south-

east of Urumqi, provincial capital of

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in far

flung northwest China. To be undertaken

by Xinjiang Electric Power Company, the

project will include installing an 1lOkV

substation and a 3km double circuit 1lOkV

transmission line to link to the nearby

220kV power grid. The Dabancheng area is

one of nine separate wind farm regions in

Xinjiang with adequate wind resources.

Within the Dabancheng area, five sites in

close proximity have been identified with a

combined estimated 1,OOOMW wind-based

generation capacity. Three wind farms with

a combined installed capacity of 69.iMW

already are in operation at two of the sites.

The 30MW wind farm that the Asian

Development Bank will fund will be located

at Dabancheng No 3 site that can accom-

modate up to 200M W of wind power gen-

eration capacity. The average annual wind

speed available for power generation is esti-

mated at 8.4 metres per second (m/s).

The two other schemes are the same size.

In Heilongjiang Province in northeast

China, Heilongjiang Electric Power Co will

build a 24MW wind farm about 32km

southwest of the city of Fujin. The project

will include installing a 66/l OkV substation

and a double circuit 66kV transmission line

will run 5km to connect to the nearby 66kV

grid line. The wind farm at Fujin will be

located on a small range of hills named

Bielanyinshan, on the Sanjiang plain. It will

be the first wind farm in Heilongjiang

Province which has four main wind zones..

The area where the wind farm will be con-

structed has the highest wind resource of the

four zones and is situated at the top of a

mountain with an 8km ridge line which

varies in height from 240 to 473 metres

above sea level. The average annual wind

speed available for power generation is esti-

mated at 9.2 m/s. In Liaoning Province, also

in northeast China, a 24MW wind farm

will be built at Xiwaizi near Yingkou City,

on the eastern shore of Liaoning Bay.

Liaoning Electric Power Co will implement

the project that will include installing a

66ilOkV substation and a 7km double cir-

cuit 66kV transmission line to link to the

nearby power grid.

Xiwaizi wind farm will be the sixth

wind power project to be constructed in

Liaoning where existing operational wind

power schemes total about 50MW

installed capacity. The wind farm will be

built on a relatively flat area of land close

to the eastern shore of Liaoning Bay.

However, a 20 metre high cliff near the site

may introduce some turbulence that the

project engineers will need to address dur-

ing the project design stage. The average

annual wind speed available for power gen-

eration is estimated at 6.9 m/s. Although it

is assumed that 660 kW wind turbines will

be installed on each of the three wind

Farms, the three project implementing

power companies could decide to use larg-

er turbines ranging from 850 kW to

1.5MW as larger wind turbines would

yield similar amounts of energy.

Consultant engineers selected the 660kW

size during the project loan preparation

stage as this size is suitable for all three

wind farms sites. A decision on whether to

use 66OkW or larger turbines at each loca-

tion will be made during bid evaluation for

the supply of turbines based on the micro

siting of the turbines proposed by the bid-

ders and the prices quoted by them.

Asian Development Bank loan Under the terms of the Asian Development

Bank loan, the wind turbines will be pro-

cured through international competitive

bidding. The wind turbines will be import-

ed as Chinese manufacturers do not have

the required technical capability and experi-

ence to man&cture the equipment.

Meanwhile, as part of plans to use the three

wind farms as show case projects, the wind

turbine man&cturcrs submitting winning

bids will be responsible for the initial oper-

ation and maintenance of the wind farms.

This will reduce risks associated with start

up problems. In fact, the availability of

existing wind farms in China has been lower

than expected until now due to poor main-

tenance compounded by debt repayment

problems. Initial involvement of the wind

turbine manufacturers in running the wind

farms will help esrablish inventory systems

for spare parts. The manufacturers will train

staff employed on the wind farms

tion and maintenance enabling

assume full responsibility about

after the project completion date.

in opcra-

them to

one year

Solar showing promise Meanwhile, solar energy also offers large

potential in China. Currently most oppor-

tunities to develop solar power involve

supplying remote communities that lie far

from any electricity grid and lack other

sources of power generation. Shell, for

example, recently signed an agreement

with Sun Oasis Co of Beijing to supply

solar home system for up to 78,000 house-

holds over the next five years in Xinjiang

Province in western China. Funded by a

US$I 5 million Dutch government grant,

the project is part of China’s Bright

Programme to bring electricity to remote

communities. Currently an estimated

300,000 low income families in rural

Xinjiang are without electricity. Sun Oasis

will be responsible for marketing, installing

and maintaining the solar home systema

while Shell will supply the systems and

provide technical and management assis-

tance. This is not the first solar power

scheme in Xinjiang as about 10,000 house-

holds have been installed with solar power

over the past 10 years.

November/December 2002 RE www.re-focmnet 21