Current Location: Home > Events&Media > Industry Updates
Author: Source: the Internet Published time: April 2, 2015
According to the latest statistics, the installed capacity of wind power in China exceeded 100 million kW for the first time by the end of February; the wind power equipment-making industry has returned to growth at a normal and rational pace after a “rollercoaster ride”. Positive signals of the wind power industry entering a period of steady growth have been seen, whether it is the policies issued by the state about power generation with clean energy such as wind and PV, or the notice issued by the National Energy Administration about satisfactory work in wind power connecting to the grid and absorption in 2015. As is evident in the business performance bulletins by many wind power equipment enterprises, there has been a significant growth in business, whether they are enterprises making whole wind power equipment or those producing components and parts such as blades and flanges. With the wind power equipment industry going steady in its growth and a new wave of “preemptive installation” resulting from downward adjustment of the on-grid power tariff, wind power equipment makers will obtain steady new orders.
The National Development and Reform Commission has recently announced the scheme for onshore wind power benchmark tariff adjustment, deciding that the benchmark feed-in tariffs for the wind power in resource area categories I, II, and III is adjusted downward by RMB0.02 per kWh; that the adjusted feed-in benchmark tariffs are RMB0.49, 0.52, and 0.56 per kWh respectively; that the tariff for resource category IV remains unchanged at RMB0.61 per kWh.
According to Zou Changning, general manager of the Market Development Center of United Power, for a higher power tariff, the operators will try their best to complete by the end of this year the projects approved and not yet completed in wind areas I, II, and III. This has led to a strong demand of wind turbines from the developers, which is good news to some extent and will bring new orders to wind power equipment enterprises. In the following years when the developers begin to the feel the pressure of financing, the scale of development will go down, and so it will with the demand of wind turbines.
However, the dramatically increased demand in the market will definitely lead to extra work of production at the wind power equipment makers. Despite the high output of wind power equipment, the quality of the equipment thus produced may be worrying to the industry.
“The ‘wave of preemptive installation’ will lead to supply failing to meet demand in a short term in the wind power industry. To start their projects as soon as possible, some developers may purchase equipment from suppliers not up to the standard, leaving some risks along the way in the wind power industry,” said Zou Changning. After many years of vibrant development of the wind power industry, the market has become mature and the requirements for quality wind turbines have been increasing; as for the equipment suppliers, the technological threshold has been rising and the performance and quality of domestic turbines have been on the rise.
According to experts in their analyses, while the “wave of preemptive installation” has led to a drastic increase in demand for wind power equipment, it also raises the requirements for the performance and technology of the generator units. Currently, a single large-capacity wind turbine is a trend and wind turbines of 1.5mW and 2.5mW have been the mainstream models. Large-capacity wind turbines are demanding components and parts and assembly techniques, which is apparently good news to leading wind equipment enterprises such as Goldwind and Sinoma Science & Technology.
“Internet + Manufacturing” proposed in the government work report this year has been a catchphrase, while the Internet of Energy, closely related with wind power, is the talk in the industry. As Yan Junxu, chairman of Titanwind, sees it, the Internet of Energy can be regarded as a sub-Internet, as it would be impossible to allocate resources for production and absorption in a timely and effective manner without the support of the Internet and Big Data.
Multiple types of control are available for wind turbines. By the chain drive structure, there are direct drive, semi-direct drive, and high-speed driving chain; the power generator type, there are double-fed, low-speed permanent magnet, and high-speed permanent magnet generators. As far as smart control for wind turbines, the trends include pitch control diagnosis, vibration monitoring, blade status monitoring, smart lubrication, smart yawing, smart pitch control, smart untwisting, and smart testing.
As an emerging star in the wind equipment industry, Envision is entering the unchartered territory in the Internet and the energy industry. With its Global Digital Energy Innovation Center in Silicon Valley and Global Energy Efficiency Technology Research Center in Japan, it is involved in the R&D of smart wind farms and smart energy management software.
As early as in 2006, Envision proposed the idea of smart wind turbines in a bid to address such problems as low power generation efficiency, a wind turbine quality assurance rate of 20%, and complicated and inefficient O&M at the later stage. After research and experiments, the company has had installed 600 sensors in its wind turbines, enabling them to make self-diagnosis. If the sensor or its component in a wind turbine trips and the turbine has not yet exceeded the critical fatigue point in its running, the operator can choose to reset it instead of dismantling it for inspection and repair traditionally. With this improvement, the generation efficiency of the wind turbine has increased by 15%~20%.
The smart trend in wind power equipment is in fact gaining momentum by the day. All data and operational status can be remotely monitored through smart wind turbines and the smart wind farm management platform and by combining the IoT and cloud computing technology. With a unified solution, all electrical controls can be completed through unified design, which helps to better benefit the users, improve reliability and availability, increase power output, and reduce costs. In other words, the Internet and Big Data mentality is applied in wind power equipment-making and wind farm management. (Source: http://www.cpnn.com.cn/)
