China's offshore wind power development enters an accelerated period

On June 17, 2011, the Shanghai Offshore Wind Power and Wind Power Industry Chain Conference and Exhibition closed at Shanghai New International Expo Center. The largest and second-largest offshore wind power event in Asia has attracted top global offshore wind power machine manufacturers such as Huarui, Vestas, Siemens, Guodian United Power, General Motors, and Gomeside, and the global wind power industry has developed offshore wind power in China. The outlook is getting better and better.

Since 2007, the Shanghai Offshore Wind Power Conference has been successfully held for four times. The current exhibition has a scale of nearly 15,000 square meters, and there are nearly 800 guests in the forum, all of which have grown substantially compared with the previous session. More than 100 complete machine manufacturers, spare parts suppliers, etc. displayed their new products and new technologies at the exhibition; of the 15 special forums, 135 speakers gave the latest experience of offshore wind farms at home and abroad, the latest technology of offshore wind power, and offshore Special presentations such as construction, marine preservation, certification, transmission and distribution, and investment. Sinovel, Vestas and Shanghai Electric’s procurement team also held trade talks on offshore wind turbine parts at the conference.

Offshore wind power development and its equipment manufacturing represent the highest level of wind power technology today, and have become the latest focus of competition among new energy industries in various countries. More than 100 countries around the world have begun to develop wind power with cumulative installed capacity of 894,000 kilowatts. At present, China's offshore wind power has also entered an accelerated period. In 2009, China’s newly installed offshore wind power capacity was 63,000 kilowatts. According to the preliminary plan of the National Energy Administration, it is expected that this figure will increase to 5 million kilowatts by 2015. The first phase will be based on concession tenders, and then gradually transition to the fixed price. So far, China's four offshore wind power concession projects have been determined to be located along the coast of Yancheng in the province, with a total installed capacity of 1 million kilowatts, and are currently undergoing preliminary construction.

The industry generally believes that the lack of technological innovation, the inverse cost of electricity prices, and inconsistent local planning will affect the further development of domestic offshore wind power. In this regard, Li Junfeng, deputy director of the Energy Development Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, made it clear that the key to the future healthy development of offshore wind power in China is the government’s steady support policy and a unified certification standard system. Author: Jun-Feng Wang Chen Chunyu Xu Sheng right