Standing on a high hill, with a gentle breeze brushing against the face and soft ground, one cannot feel its power, but rows of white fans are freely rotating. This is the scene seen by a reporter from Economic Reference Daily during an interview at Guodian Yunnan Dafengyakou Wind Farm located in Yongding Town, Fumin County, Yunnan Province.

"With the changes in the market, China's wind power industry has entered a new round of adjustment period." Zhang Binquan, Deputy General Manager of Guodian Science and Environment Group and General Manager of Guodian United Power Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as United Power), said in an interview with reporters in Beijing. On the one hand, due to the impact of wind power restrictions in the northern region, wind power development businesses are heading south; On the other hand, under the overcapacity and fierce market competition, wind power manufacturers successfully passed the test of the wind power market in the south with low wind speed, high altitude and the eastern coastal mudflat, and the equipment industry also began to undergo a deep reshuffle.

Power restrictions and wind abandonment force wind power developers to move eastward and southward

It is understood that as the most mature green renewable energy, wind power has gone through two different stages of development in China.

The first stage is known as the "centralized" and "base based" development stage in the industry, with the focus of development concentrated in the "three northern" regions of northwest, north China, and northeast. These regions, due to their extremely abundant wind energy resources, have become hot spots for wind power developers to compete for. At the same time, according to the plan and layout proposed by the National Energy Administration at the time of "building large bases and integrating into the power grid", a group of "wind power Three Gorges" with millions or even millions of kilowatts emerged in provinces and regions such as Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Gansu, and Xinjiang.

"However, the three northern regions were originally energy rich areas, with poor access to electricity and mismatched speeds between wind farm construction and power grid construction. The issue of wind power curtailment and power restrictions has become prominent," Wang Dapeng from the United Power Marketing Support Center told reporters.

According to data from the Wind Energy Association, wind power curtailment and power rationing began to manifest as early as 2009, with national wind power rationing exceeding 10 billion kilowatt hours in 2011. According to relevant data from the National Energy Administration, in 2012, wind power in China, mainly in the northern regions, abandoned wind power and had power restrictions exceeding 20 billion kilowatt hours, nearly double the amount in 2011. As a result, the economic efficiency of wind farm operation has decreased, resulting in economic losses exceeding 10 billion yuan.

The severe market situation forces wind power developers to take a different approach. It is understood that since 2010, a large number of wind power development enterprises have quietly moved south, shifting from the original northern resource rich area to the southern electricity market consumption area. China's wind power development has thus entered the second stage - from "centralized" to "decentralized", from "heavy resources" to "heavy markets", and from the "three northern" regions to southern provinces and regions.

"Guodian Power took the lead and established Yunnan New Energy Company as early as 2009, beginning to develop the southern wind power market." Yang Zhengxiong, Director of the Safety Production Department of Guodian Power Yunnan New Energy Company, introduced, "Up to now, the entire Guodian Group has built and put into operation six wind farms in the south, including two in Guodian Group Yunnan Company, two in Guodian Power Yunnan Company, and two in Guodian Longyuan."

It is understood that compared to the wind resources in the three northern regions, most wind farms in the south are located in areas with low wind speeds and high altitudes. What are the benefits of wind power development? "The economic benefits of Yunnan wind farms are quite considerable." At the Dafengyakou wind farm in Fumin County, Yunnan, Yang Zhengxiong pointed to one rotating wind turbine and told reporters that this is the first wind farm developed and connected to the grid by Guodian Power in the south. There are a total of 22 1.5MW wind turbines per unit, all of which use the USP-82 plateau type wind turbines produced by United Power Company. The annual utilization hours reach 3229 hours, and the equipment utilization rate reaches 99.2%.

Yang Zhengxiong said that many people believe that Yunnan is a major province in hydropower, and whether there will also be wind power consumption problems like the "Three North" regions. In fact, the climate characteristics of Yunnan have formed a unique "feng shui complementary" power pattern, with the main flood season from July to September each year, and abundant hydropower; During the interview, the reporter learned that in addition to State Grid Corporation of China, in recent years, several state-owned enterprises such as Huaneng, Datang, Huadian, China Power Investment Corporation, CGN, and China Electric Power Construction Zhongshui Consulting Group have also entered the Yunnan wind power market. At the same time, in the tide of developing wind power in the south, in addition to Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and other southern provinces and even Xizang have become hot spots for wind power developers to compete. Market competition promotes deep reshuffling of the wind power equipment industry

Shi Pengfei, Vice Chairman of the Wind Energy Professional Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society, believes that the reason why southern wind power development has become a hot topic cannot be solely attributed to power restrictions and wind abandonment in the northern region. Another important reason is that the competition in the wind power manufacturing industry has intensified, and unit prices have plummeted significantly. This has forced manufacturers to increase technological innovation, especially in the research and development of low wind speed and high-altitude models, thereby turning the previously unsuitable southern wind farms into treasures.

"Intense market competition is driving China's wind power equipment industry to clear sand and accelerate its reshuffle," Zhang Binquan, General Manager of United Power, told reporters. The first round of reshuffle has been completed, and a large number of small wind turbine manufacturing enterprises without technical support have been eliminated; The top 10 large wind turbine manufacturing enterprises are also re ranking in the competition.

It is understood that in the first round of reshuffle, Goldwind Technology, which has adhered to the concept of "wind power long-distance" for many years, steadily won and became the largest wind turbine manufacturer in China. According to the "2012 China Wind Power Installation Capacity Statistics" report released by the China Wind Energy Association, the total new installed capacity of wind power in China in 2012 was 12960 MW, and the new installed capacity of Goldwind Technology in the domestic market was 2521.5 MW, accounting for 19.5% of the total new installed capacity in the country. The cumulative installed capacity was 15200.4 MW, accounting for 20.2% of the total installed capacity in the country, both ranking first in the domestic market.

At the same time, United Power has become a dark horse in the wind turbine manufacturing industry, standing out. According to the aforementioned wind power installation statistics report, United Power's newly added installed capacity in 2012 reached 2029 megawatts, accounting for 15.7% of the total domestic installed capacity for the year and ranking second in the country.

Industry insiders believe that in this round of reshuffle in the wind power equipment industry, the winners are manufacturers who attach great importance to technological innovation and product quality. For example, Goldwind Technology and United Power, as the top and runner up companies, are market-oriented and developed a series of units with low wind speed, high altitude, low temperature, and high temperature a few years ago. They seized the opportunity of wind power development heading south and stood at the forefront in the fierce market competition.

The reporter learned from the interview in Yunnan that the terrain of Yunnan and its surrounding provinces is extremely complex. The northwest is Hengduan Mountains with high mountains and deep valleys, and the east and south are the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The average altitude is around 2000 meters. Yunnan is mainly composed of undulating low mountains and round hills, with an average altitude of 3000-4000 meters in the northwest and 1500-2200 meters in the southwest. Generally, for every 100 meters of altitude rise, the temperature decreases by about 0.6 ℃. The whole of Yunnan is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, with over 84% of the area being mountainous, 10% being plateau and hills, and less than 6% being dams, lakes, and the like. The proportion of mountainous areas in some counties and cities exceeds 98%.

"The complex topography and climate characteristics of southern China pose challenges to wind turbines. United Power has withstood the test with its excellent technical performance." Cao Yuehu, manager of United Power's Yunnan Marketing Support Center, said that at present, the wind power projects won by United Power through market bidding span five provinces and regions, including Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi and Xizang, and 15 projects have been started, of which 9 are wind power developers outside the system of Guodian Corporation.

Zhang Binquan believes that the reshuffle of the wind power equipment industry has not ended. With the deepening of domestic institutional reform, adjustment of energy agency policies, and changes in the international economic situation, a larger and more intense market competition based on "offshore wind power" and "overseas wind power" has already begun. He predicted that China's wind power equipment manufacturing will face a new round of deep reshuffle.

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