Wind Power

Worldwide capacity of wind energy is

approaching 100 000 MW
Costs of generating electricity from
wind today are only about 10% of
what they were 20 years ago due to
advances in turbine technology
At well chosen locations wind power
can compete with conventional
sources of energy

Advantages of modern multimegawatt turbines (repowering)

More wind power from the same area
of land
Less wind turbines
Higher efficiency, lower costs
Enhanced appearance turbines
rotate at a lower speed & are more
visually pleasing
Better grid integration connection
method is similar to conventional
power plants

Concerns
Huge turbines located nearby will blight
homes & affect property values
Hum of turbines disturbing people & wildlife
Skylines in scenically beautiful areas ruined
Turbines can kill birds migratory flocks
tend to follow strong wind
Affect TV reception
Cost of investing in wind energy is high
compared to the alternatives

Wind
Chinas fastest growing
renewable energy resource

 Chinas wind power production actually

increased more than coal power production
for the first time ever in 2012, according
tonew statisticsfrom the China Electricity
Council
Thermal power use (coal) grew by only
about 0.3% in China during 2012, an
addition of roughly 12 terawatt hours (TWh)
more electricity. In contrast, wind power
production expanded by about 26 TWh.

 Total amount of wind power

production in China is brought to 100
TWh,
Coal still accounts for 79% of
electricity production in China, but is
challenged by competition from
cleaner energy, as well
asgovernment policiesandpublic
concerns about air pollution.

Largest yet most inefficient wind

power system in the world?
In 2012, 13 gigawatts (GW) were
added to the system, and
incremental wind electricity
production exceeded coal growth for
the first time ever
In the same year, unused wind
electricity hit record highs while wind
not connected to the grid was
roughly half the size of Germanys
fleet

Disadvantages
Wind projects are typically far from
city and industrial centres where
electricity is needed, however, and
transmission investments to connect
to the grid did not keep up pace.
A third of the turbines in 2010 were
languishing unconnected, unable to
sell their electricity

 China haduntil mid-2011 a unique

policythat exacerbated the wind-grid
mismatch:
all projects smaller than 50 MW could
be approved directly by local
governments, bypassing more
rigorous feasibility analyses, in
particular, related to grid access.

 If you are a wind farm owner and have

successfully connected to the grid, you
might still face hurdles when trying to
transmit your power to load centres.
Grid operators make decisions a day
ahead on which thermal plants to turn on,
so if wind is significantly higher than
forecasted 24 hours before, the difference
may be curtailed (or spilled) to maintain
grid stability.

 If wind is at the end of a congested

transmission line, the grid operator may
also have to curtail, as happens in ERCOT
(Texas grid) and northwest China.
To manage hourly variation, grid operators
will accept wind as much as they can
ramp up and down other generators to
maintain supply and demand balance. The
thermodynamics of fossil fuel plants place
limits on this flexibility

Chinas curtailment problems are

much more severe than for its peers
This difference is largely, though not
exclusively, attributable to two
factors: Chinas mix is coal-heavy
which is more sluggish when
changing output than, for example,
natural gas.

Political fragmentation
Idiosyncrasies of Chinas power sector
governance results in spilled wind.
A product of the partial deregulation (1997
and 2002) - the establishment of
generation quotas for coal plants:
minimum annual generation outputs fixed
by province loosely to recover costs and
ensure a profit.
There may be messy politics if wind cuts
into the quotas of existing plants.

solutions
Targeted reforms:
The guiding document for power sector reform
published in 2002 (State Council [2002] No. 5):
1. establish a wholesale market in each dispatch
region to encourage competition in generation;
2. open up inter-regional electricity markets;
3. allow for retail price competition and direct
electricity contracts between producers and
large consumers, among others.

 Better implementation of existing regulations

(such as a mandate that grids give precedence
to renewables over thermal plants)
additional requirements on wind forecasting
and automated turbine control, and
compensation schemes of coal generators for
ramping services.
Due to these policies and central government
pressure to better accommodate renewables :
all provinces except Hebei saw anincrease in
utilization hours in the first half of 2013

conclusion
Due to the unique mix of power plants and
regulation in China, typical wind integration
approaches such as increased transmission
are important but not sufficient.
China aims to generate at least 390 TWh of
electricity from wind in 2020, which is roughly
5% of total production under business-asusual, over twice in percentage terms of
current levels. This will put additional stresses
on the nations purse and power grid.

 How China chooses to face these

conflicts and grow its wind sector
through a combination of more
investment and targeted reforms
will have unavoidable implications for
the long-term viability of wind energy
in the country.

Sources
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201
3/03/20/1744741/chinas-wind-power-pr
oduction-increased-more-than-coal-po
wer-did-for-first-time-ever-in-2012/
http://theenergycollective.com/micha
el-davidson/259871/transforming-chin
a-s-grid-integrating-wind-energy-itblows-away
http://theenergycollective.com/robe
rtrapier/397011/when-wind-doesn-t-b
low