Quarter Of Chinese Wind Power Unplugged Due To Bad Planning
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 01.20.08
A good news, bad news story about wind power in China. The Chinese government's growing romance with wind remains significantly unrequited. Many of the recently erected wind turbines remain "unplugged." Either there's no grid connection nearby or grid owners don't want the power for reasons that can only be speculated on. Good green intentions and investments are of little value without social consensus, matched infrastsructure, and market mechanisms in place. Is China just too big and complex to be serious with renewable power?
China's wind power generating capacity surged to 5.6 gigawatts by the end of last year, but over a quarter of it is still not connected to the grid because of bad planning, an industry expert said on Wednesday. Shi Pengfei, vice-president of the Chinese wind energy association, said capacity growth in 2008 is likely to speed up, with another 4 GW expected to be added by the booming industry.
This will bring the total amount of turbines erected by the end of this year to nearly 10 GW, or twice Beijing's official target for the end of the decade.But because local governments are keen to jump on the renewable energy bandwagon as Beijing pushes greener growth, they are approving new wind farms without proper planning, Shi said.
Via::Reuters, "China wind power hits 5.6 GW" Image credit::Dries Buytaert, Personal Website, 'Unplugged'
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I wish they would give me an outlet that was hooked up to that free wind, especially after I get my Phoenix. China is a disaster, they are way past putting up a bunch of wind turbines and everything will be okay. What a mess!
What exactly would the "lack of proper planning" refer to? Lack of connections to the grid? No contracts worked out with Chinese power distribution? What?
In my home state of Kansas, lack of transmission lines has been the greatest impediment to wind power production of the United States' third greatest wind resource. Fortunately, policymakers like our Governor and Lt. Governor have worked actively with utilities and power companies to make transmissions lines happen now, rather than wait the "normal" year or so for permitting, construction, etc.
I would think that China would want to remain the world's largest renewable energy provider, and would solve this problem as quickly as possible (as it usually addresses issues in the energy sector) to keep that moniker.
-GreenOx
www.greenox.blogspot.com
There are actually quite a few reasons not to want wind power if you haven't considered it in your generating portfolio. It's difficult to schedule and needs to be offset with other highly available and rampable generation. If it's not then grid reliability drops like a stone.
China will work it out, count on it, but I'd agree that their lack of planning seems to be biting them in the ass a fair bit - maybe the costs associated with working things out after the event will persuade the people involved to be a bit more considered in their approach.
That said, at least they're putting the things up, and there's nothing to motivate you to sort out the problems quite like having hundreds of millions of dollars of capital sitting there failing to make you a return.
Or is this a green wash?
China: Look at us. We have green power. We have 5.6 gw of wind. What? Don't wory about those smokestacks. Those are just in case we don't get enough power from the wind turbines.
Wind can easily screw up your grid.
Were any of you around during the last great renewable energy boom and bust cycle of the 1970s and 1980s? I was. Of course, there was no Chinese or for that matter Indian economic power house sucking up increasing amounts of energy.
I am a big believer in economic cycles. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. As high energy prices choke off economic growth and world oil, natural gas, and coal production begins to catch up with falling demand, we may find ourselves back in the mid 1980s. That was when all alternative energy went bust. For that matter, the drillers in oil patch America laid off their workers.
That China can have, what I assume is, millions of dollars of equipment sitting idle, is a sign to me that the wasteful spending of the last energy boom in the early 80s is repeating itself. Add in the US ethanol boondoggle and I see a real bust coming in world energy. If that happens, those Chinese wind turbines might all be melted down before they are ever plugged in.
Were any of you around during the last great renewable energy boom and bust cycle of the 1970s and 1980s? I was. Of course, there was no Chinese or for that matter Indian economic power house sucking up increasing amounts of energy.
I am a big believer in economic cycles. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. As high energy prices choke off economic growth and world oil, natural gas, and coal production begins to catch up with falling demand, we may find ourselves back in the mid 1980s. That was when all alternative energy went bust. For that matter, the drillers in oil patch America laid off their workers.
That China can have, what I assume is, millions of dollars of equipment sitting idle, is a sign to me that the wasteful spending of the last energy boom in the early 80s is repeating itself. Add in the US ethanol boondoggle and I see a real bust coming in world energy. If that happens, those Chinese wind turbines might all be melted down before they are ever plugged in.
Energy sources like wind and solar will only ever be supplemental sources of power to lighten the burden on the primary electricity producing facility during off peak times. Wind turbines can only spin so fast and wind speed is not always constant. Solar only produces during daylight hours and varies with the intensity of the sunlight and the weather. Solar cells are evolving, but are still very inefficient. Most of the sunlight is still wasted. When there are spikes or surges in demand, you can't just increase the amount of power available from these resources. You still need a fossil fuel burning or nuclear power plant to take up the load or you'll end up with blackouts and brownouts all the time.
DOES FEMA HAVE A BRANCH IN CHINA?