Analysts at Huajin Securities in China said they expect newly installed capacity nationwide for 2018 to be somewhere between 21 and 22 GW, and that the wind power curtailment rate would continue to drop. Newly installed capacity for wind power is expected to continue to grow steadily over the next two years, while the proportion of the country’s total power sourced from wind is expected to continue to increase as well.
Favorable policies helped ameliorate the serious wind power curtailment issue that plagued some provinces and regions across China. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has announced a fifth consecutive month with a curtailment rate below 20 percent, a national baseline, on the heels of Jilin, Gansu, Heilongjiang and Shanxi provinces having reduced their wind power curtailment rate by more than 10 percentage points.
At the same time, a number of new wind power projects have recently been approved. Authorities in Anhui province gave the go ahead to 20 projects, with a total installed capacity of more than 1 GW. Hubei province is allowing six wind power projects with a total investment of 3.25B yuan (approx. US $4.8M) to go forward.
In the first three quarters of 2018, Xinjiang, Gansu and Jilin where limitations on grid connected wind power are stricter than in other regions across the country recorded only 90 MW of newly-added grid connected wind power capacity, accounting for 0.7 percent of the country’s total, according to data released by the National Energy Administration. The curtailment rate in the three regions has decreased significantly. In Jilin, notably, the curtailment rate stood at 5.2 percent for the first three quarters of 2018. The province aims to improve its wind power utilization hours for 2018 to over 2,000 hours.
As the prospects for the wind power industry brighten again, the related manufacturing sector becomes promising as a result
Recently, the State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) has begun bidding for wind turbine equipment for offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 550 MW, signaling an accelerated construction of the offshore wind facilities.
Chuancai Securities issued a report predicting that 2018-2020 will be a period witnessing a new round of recovery in the wind power sector. Against the backdrop of a markedly improved profit environment for wind farms, manufacturers of wind power related equipment are expected to return to profitability in the long run. According to Sun Can, an analyst with the firm, newly added installed wind power capacity in 2019 is expected to continue the improvement trend started in 2018.
