As of the end of September, the cumulative grid-connected capacity reached 700 million kilowatts——
Wind power moves into new space for green growth
The latest data from the National Energy Administration shows that as of the end of September, the cumulative installed capacity of wind power and solar power reached 2.01 billion kilowatts. Among them, the installed wind power capacity was 700 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 20.4%. At present, my country's wind power installed capacity has ranked first in the world for 16 consecutive years, and the export scale of wind turbines has also continued to rise.
Pan Huimin, deputy director of the New and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Administration, said that since the beginning of this year, my country's wind power has maintained a stable and orderly development, highlighted by the continuous expansion of installed capacity, the steady increase in the proportion of electricity, continuous breakthroughs in technological innovation, and the continued expansion of international cooperation. This year is the first year of the "15th Five-Year Plan". The "15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development" proposes four goals: total volume, power generation, non-electric utilization, and reliable substitution. The future of wind power development is promising.
At present, the international geopolitical situation is unstable and disrupted, and energy transformation is more important than ever. As the backbone of my country's energy security and green energy transformation, wind power still faces a series of challenges in how to further expand the scale of development and utilization.
Liang Zhipeng, chairman of the Renewable Energy Committee of the China Energy Research Society, believes that these challenges include four aspects. First, constraints such as power grid consumption capacity limit the space for new energy to replace fossil energy; second, the security of power supply still relies heavily on coal power, and the space for new energy consumption is greatly restricted; third, the income of new energy power generation projects has dropped significantly after participating in market transactions, and the industry development momentum has been significantly weakened; fourth, there is a discrepancy between the growing industrial consumption demand and users' expectations for green and low-priced electricity. In order to solve these problems, it is necessary to simultaneously promote technological innovation, institutional innovation, development model innovation and policy mechanism innovation.
This year, many mainframe manufacturers in my country's wind power industry have increased investment in technology research and development, extending the operating life of wind turbines from 20 years to 25 years. According to estimates, this alone can increase the total power generation profit of the wind turbine by more than 56% during the operation period and reduce the cost of electricity by 6% to 7%.
In order to increase the value of the entire life cycle of wind turbines, Sany Heavy Energy has released a 25-year design life turbine plan and a service capability improvement plan for the “15th Five-Year Plan”. "Currently, the profits of domestic new energy power generation companies are not high. Extending the service life of wind turbines and increasing full life cycle income has become the industry's self-help option. To achieve a long life of 25 years, the strength and fatigue durability of the entire machine must be redesigned." said Lin Zhigang, deputy general manager of Sany Heavy Energy.
The "15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development" proposes that by 2030, the national average wind power and photovoltaic output will reach 8%, and the proportion of wind power and photovoltaic power during peak summer, winter and evening peaks will reach more than 20%. This means that new energy must accelerate the shift from "gaps and fluctuations" to "credibility and stability."
"The key to reliable replacement lies in the high reliability of the system." Liu Ke'an, vice president of CRRC Co., Ltd., said that when wind power is connected to the power grid on a large scale, what the industry needs is a system that can proactively provide voltage and frequency support.
Regarding the transformation direction of the wind power industry's technical roadmap, Envision Energy Senior Vice President Lou Yimin believes that on the one hand, wind turbines need to be transformed from a single power generation equipment to a controllable intelligent entity in a large-scale source, grid, load and storage system, predicting wind energy through large meteorological models, and adjusting output based on power demand; on the other hand, wind power needs to be deeply coordinated with energy storage to stabilize output fluctuations and improve friendliness to the grid. The development of large wind and solar bases also requires wind and solar storage coordination, so that more green power can be absorbed by large power grids. To this end, Envision Energy has launched an artificial intelligence wind-storage integrated machine product matrix to promote wind power equipment from the "stand-alone era" to the "all-in-one era" of intelligent collaboration.
It is worth noting that in the past, wind power installed capacity mainly followed the planning and construction of ultra-high voltage power grids, and the growth rate was constrained by the power grid construction cycle; with technological advancement and development model iteration, wind power can be directly converted into green computing power, green fuel and other industrial products during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, free from the constraints of grid infrastructure, and the growth space will be further opened.
At present, wind power is not only a provider of clean electricity, but also a source of green fuel: green ammonia and green methanol are becoming key solutions in "difficult to decarbonize" fields such as shipping and aviation. In Lou Yimin's view, for the large-scale development of the industry, in addition to breaking through technical and economic bottlenecks, it is also necessary to enhance the credibility of carbon accounting, unify carbon accounting standards, and enhance buyer confidence. At the same time, system integration capabilities need to be further improved.
Cross-industry collaboration also needs to be strengthened. Lou Yimin said that if industries that are "difficult to decarbonize" such as shipping and aviation switch to green ammonia and green methanol, their requirements for cost, supply, and quality must be clear. Only by clarifying back-end requirements can large-scale operations truly get on the right track. "The next step for green hydrogen and green ammonia is not to compete with whose electrolyzer is bigger, but to compete with whose system is more efficient. This requires the entire industry from wind power to chemical industry to downstream users to work together to build an ecosystem."
Regarding the diversified utilization of wind power, Liang Zhipeng suggested opening up the green value realization path of new energy, increasing the green premium of products, enhancing the core competitiveness of the market, and realizing a virtuous industrial cycle of green production, green consumption, and green value-added.
