CHINA RENEWABLE ENERGY MAGAZINE V

Transcription

CHINA RENEWABLE ENERGY MAGAZINE V
CHINA RENEWABLE ENERGY INTERNAL MAGAZINE OF CNREC
Consultants:
Du Xiangwan
Xu Dingming
Shi Dinghuan
Bai Rongchun
Xu Xiaodong
He Dexin
Zhao Yuwen
Yin Zhiqiang
Yuan Zhenhong
Han Zaisheng
Hans Jorgen Koch
Peter Hjuler Jensen
Jorgen Delman
Anja Møller Rasmussen
Fernando Sánchez Sudon
David Kline
William Wallace
Editor in Chief:
Han Wenke
Shi Lishan
Executive Editor in Chief:
Wang Zhongying
Associate Editor in Chief:
Liang Zhipeng
Editorial Director:
Wang Zhongying
Ren Dongming
Deputy Editorial Director:
Gao Hu
Kaare Sandholt
Zhao Yongqiang
Wang Wei
Editor:
Shi Jingli
Hu Runqing
Luo Zhihong
Liu Jiandong
Fan Lijuan
Zhang Wanjun
Zhang Pei
Duty Editor:
Wang Wei
Art Editor:
Liu Qin
Strategic partner:
National Climate Change Strategy Research and International Cooperation Center (NCSC )
CMA Public Meteorological Service Centre (CMA Wind and Solar Energy Resources Assessment Center)
Hydropower and Water Resources Planning & Design General Institute
State Grid Energy Research Institute
Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Renewable Energy Department of China Electric Power Research Institute
Institute of Energy and Environment Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering
Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institution
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University
School of Renewable Energy, North China Electric Power University(NCEPU)
School of Power and Energy, Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU)
China Renewable Energy Society
Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA)
Chinese Wind Energy Equipment Association (CWEEA)
China General Certification Center
Suzhou Longyuan Bailu Wind Power Technique Vocational Training Center Co., Ltd., China Longyuan Power Group Corporation Limited
CECEP Consulting Co., Ltd
Address: B1915, Guohong Mansion, No. Jia11, Muxidi Beili, Xicheng District, Beijing, China
Zip Code: 100038
Tel: +86-010-63908022
Fax: +86-010-63908024
E-mail: editor@cnrec.org.cn
www.cnrec.org.cn
www.cnrec.info
Copyright:
All Copyright Reserved. Part of the contents and pictures are from the Internet. If you have any issue about copyright,
please contact editor@cnrec.org.cn.
Published on 26 July 2013
2 China Renewable Energy
CONTENTS
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
04
12
17
25
U.S.-China Renewable Energy Partnership:
Cooperation to Advance Clean Energy
David Kline, William Wallace, Yongqiang Zhao
China-U.S. Renewable Energy Trade and Investment Trend
Peng Peng
CHINA-US COLLABORATION ON RENEWABLE ENERGY STANDARDS, TESTING,
AND CERTIFICATION
William Wallace, Sarah Kurtz, Xie Bingxin
US-China Energy Cooperation Program (ECP) Supporting U.S. China
Renewable Energy Partnership
US-China Energy Cooperation Program (ECP)
Industry Insight
28
35
41
45
50
53
High RE scenarios for China in 2050
Research team of CNREC
Current Status of PV in China
Wang Sicheng
Progress and Challenge of New Energy Demonstration City
Hu Runqing
Challenges and Suggestions for the development of China’s Wind Power
Industry
Qin Haiyan
The prospect of China PV market development
Yang Shaonan
Overview: U.S. Renewable Energy Markets & Policy
American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE)
China Renewable Energy 3
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
U.S.-China Renewable Energy
Partnership:Cooperation to Advance
Clean Energy
David Kline, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
William Wallace, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Yongqiang Zhao, China National Renewable Energy Center
Introduction
In November 2009 in Beijing, President Obama
of the United States and President Hu of the
People’s Republic of China endorsed seven
bilateral energy agreements representing new
initiatives for joint action and cooperation on
new and alternative clean energy topics. The
U.S.-China Renewable Energy Partnership
(USCREP), which focused on renewable energy
joint research collaboration and cooperation, was
one of these seven bilateral agreements. This
article describes the background of the USCREP
and its progress since the last annual Renewable
Energy Industries Forum (REIF) in September
2011. Selected highlights of results of this
collaboration include the following:
• Completion of a Chinese national electricity
sector planning model in partnership between
4 China Renewable Energy
the Energy Research Institute (ERI), the
China National Renewable Energy Center
(CNREC), the Sino-Danish Renewable
Energy Development Program in Beijing,
and the U.S. National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL)
• Collaboration and technical exchanges in
support of the Solar Decathlon, an energy
efficiency and clean energy sustainable
house-design competition between collegiate
teams, in China, to be held in Datong in
August 2013
• Publication of a joint paper between NREL,
the equipment supplier Second Wind,
and HydroChina describing a validation
experiment for an advanced SODAR
anemometer technology
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
• Initiation of a wind turbine wake
effects analysis for a Chinese wind farm
a PV module round-robin2 testing exercise
among 19 test centers in China
•Hosting of a workshop on “China-US
Renewable Energy Project Evaluation
and Business Model Development” in
Shanghai in November 2011
• Continued technical exchanges on wind,
solar, and grid integration standards,
including studies prepared by the U.S.-China
Energy Cooperation Program (ECP) during
2012-2013, which will be presented at the
3rd Renewable Energy Industries Forum in
Shanghai on July 31, 2013.
• Hosting of the “China-US Solar
Technology Cooperation and Resource
Assessment Workshop” in Dezhou, China
in December 2011
• China-specific side events at the Utility
Variable Generation Integration Group
(UVIG) 1 meetings in April 2011, April
2012, and April 2013 combined with
separate technical discussions at NREL
• Development of two complementary
guidebooks on investing in the U.S.
wind sector: (1) “Manual on Wind Power
Investment in the USA,” by the Energy
Cooperation Program and (2) “Overview
of US Wind Energy Industry and Market”
by the Chinese Wind Energy Association
and USFOR Energy, LLC; Chinese partners
are currently developing a guidebook on
investment in the wind sector in China
• Cooperation to facilitate enhanced Chinese
participation in international standards
forums, such as the IEC TC82 and 88
technical committees for solar and wind,
several International Energy Agency tasks,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers tasks, and key new initiatives on
quality assurance (QA) standards
• Technical exchanges between solar test
centers at NREL and in China, including
History and Background
Following the Obama-Hu discussions on
clean energy cooperation in late 2009, the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the
Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA)
formalized the USCREP in a memorandum of
cooperation (MoC). The stated objective of the
MoC is to address significant barriers to the
widespread deployment of renewable energy and
advanced grid technologies in both countries,
in order to promote accelerated deployment
of those technologies with mutual and global
benefits. Anticipated benefits include enhancing
energy security, reducing emissions, protecting
the environment, and creating new engines for
economic growth and job
As defined in the USCREP MoC, the partnership
calls for cooperation in seven areas: (1)
renewable energy road mapping, (2) renewable
energy regional deployment solutions, (3) grid
modernization (advanced transmission and smart
grid technologies), (4) advanced renewable
energy technologies (wind, solar, and grid
technologies), (5) advanced biofuels,3 (6) policy
and finance, and (7) standards and testing.
The USCREP and the ECP began collaborating
on renewable energy topics in 2010, leveraging
private and public sector capabilities and
1
UVIG was formerly called the Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG).
In a round-robin test, the same test is carried out in several different laboratories and the results systematically compared. Round robin tests can
help identify technical issues in any of the laboratories, or significant differences in procedures between the laboratories.
3
Cooperation for advanced biofuels is governed by a separate memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed in Beijing in December 2007 by the
U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy, and the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. The cooperative biofuels work is not
covered in this article.
2
China Renewable Energy 5
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
resources. The ECP also participates in the
partnership’s formal dialogue with the NEA and
advisory groups on issues such as renewable
energy policy and financing best practices, grid
modernization, and advanced technologies.
Management of the USCREP has been assigned
by the U.S. Department of Energy to the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
on the U.S. side and by China’s National
Energy Administration to the Energy Research
Institute (ERI) for China activities. NREL and
the ERI prepare annual operating plans under
the direction and guidance of DOE and NEA in
consultation with the working groups under the
USCREP.
Five technical tasks were established under the
USCREP, each with a corresponding working
group. The tasks and associated working
groups consist of: (1) Policy, Planning, and
Coordination, (2) Wind Technology Cooperation,
( 3 ) S o l a r Te c h n o l o g y C o o p e r a t i o n , ( 4 )
Renewable Grid Integration, and (5) Standards,
Testing, and Certification. This task structure was
developed by ERI and NREL and approved by
the NEA and DOE to accommodate the priorities
stated in the MoC that align with DOE and NEA
technical programs and interests. New tasks may
be added as needed.4
Summary of Task Activities and
Achievements
(1) Policy, Planning, and Coordination
Working Group
This task, led by ERI and NREL, addresses
policy and renewable energy planning and
analysis issues, including policy analysis, energy
system modeling and case study analysis for
China, and exchange of policy and analysis
information related to large-scale renewable
4
energy deployment. The task includes overall
technical coordination of the USCREP, under the
direction of DOE and NEA.
Objectives
• Perform joint energy system modeling and
analysis to provide a framework that supports
the assessment and refinement of national
renewable electricity targets under the 12th
Five-year Plan as well as long-term plans (by
2020, 2030, and 2050), and other policies
and programs in China.
• Develop case study scenarios describing
alternative renewable electric deployment
strategies at the national level.
• Exchange information on international best
practices for policies to support large-scale
renewable energy deployment.
• Assess strategies to support the requisite
roles of provincial and local governments in
implementing renewable energy deployment
strategies.
Highlights and Accomplishments
• ERI, CNREC, the Sino-Danish Renewable
Energy Development Program, and NREL
jointly developed the China Renewable
Energy Analysis Model – Electricity and
District Heating Optimization (CREAMEDO). CREAM-EDO incorporates key
components of the Danish Balmorel models5
and NREL Renewable Energy Deployment
System (ReEDS).
• DOE, NEA, NREL, ERI organized the 3rd
Annual U.S.-China Renewable Energy
Industries Forum, to be held in Shanghai on
31 July 2013.
The five working groups cover six of the seven cooperation areas called for in the MoC. Road-mapping work is integral to the policy and planning
working group. As mentioned above, biomass is covered in a separate agreement.
5
Information on the NREL ReEDS model can be found at http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/reeds/. An introduction to Balmorel can be found at http://
www.eabalmorel.dk.
6 China Renewable Energy
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
• NREL provided support and consultation
on the organization of the China Solar
Decathlon, which will be held in Datong,
China in August of 2013..
Next Steps
• Analysis of China’s renewable energy
deployment using CREAM-EDO to help
address China’s critical grid integration
challenges at the lowest possible cost
• Energy systems case studies modeling with
results submitted to the NEA.
(2) Wind Technology Working Group
The Wind Technology Working Group pursues
joint wind technology research opportunities
between U.S. and Chinese organizations with
benefits to both countries. Current activities
include: i) a joint research study modeling
wake effects on the performance of wind farms
using NREL models and ii) development of a
guidebook on investment in the wind sector in
China.
Objectives
• Support and accelerate U.S. and Chinese
Figure 1. Wind farm for wake effect analysis in Guazhou County Gansu
Photo provided by HydroChina
efforts to deploy wind technology at speed
and scale.
• Develop research results that advance both
Chinese and U.S. wind technology goals by
improving technology and reducing the cost
of wind power.
Highlights and Accomplishments
• NREL, HydroChina and the U.S. company
Second Wind completed a validation test on
an advanced Sonic Detection And Ranging
(SODAR) anemometer. The resulting report6
concluded that the Triton SODAR unit that
was tested showed a high data recovery
rate and good correlation with reference
comparison data, and concluded that it
could be usefully applied in wind resource
assessment, including for turbine siting.
• The ECP published the “Manual on Wind
Power Investment in the U.S.A.” as a guide
for Chinese parties on how to invest in the
wind sector in the United States.
• The Chinese Wind Energy Association and
USFOR Energy released a complementary
manual and guidebook, “Overview of U.S.
Wind Energy Industry and Market.”
• The ECP completed a study on “U.S.
Wi n d P o w e r S t a n d a r d s a n d M a r k e t
Environment,” including comparison with
Chinese standards and lessons learned.
• NREL provided consultation on QA and
data filtering to HydroChina in developing
a data set describing wind turbine wake
effects in a reference wind farm.
Next Steps
The wake effects study will be completed
with a report on the methodology and
results of the collaboration.
6
G. Scott, D. Elliott, and M. Schwartz, Comparison of Second Wind Triton Data with Meteorological Tower Measurements, NREL/TP-550-47429.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO., 2010. See http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/47429.pdf.
China Renewable Energy 7
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
Figure 2: Workshop in Dezhou, December 2011 on technical issues related to solar PV development.
Source: Photo from Wan Lin, China General Certification Center
The ECP wind standards study will be released
at the 3rd Renewable Energy Industries Forum.
(3) Solar Technology Working Group
This working group held workshops covering
several key issues, including (1) energy
modeling, financing, and development of new
business models for solar photovoltaic (PV)
deployment, and (2) solar resource assessment
techniques, best practices for PV project
development, and distributed generation
technical issues (Fig. 2). In addition, this working
group cooperates closely with the standards and
grid integration tasks.
Objectives
• Identify and propose solutions to barriers
affecting large-scale grid-connected PV
power stations and PV distributed energy
generation applications in order to accelerate
widespread commercial PV deployment in
the United States and China.
• Cooperation to demonstrate best practices
for PV project development and execution
for commercial utility-interconnected power
stations, to encourage investment from the
private sector (companies, banks, financial
institutions).
8 China Renewable Energy
Highlights and Accomplishments
• NREL, the China General Certification
C e n t e r, a n d o t h e r U S C R E P p a r t n e r s
organized the “China-US Renewable Energy
Project Evaluation and Business Model
Development Workshop,” held in Shanghai
in November 2011. U.S. and Chinese
participants described best practices in
solar energy finance and project structure
and considered new business models for
accelerating the deployment of solar PV
power systems in China.
• NREL, the China General Certification
Center, and others organized the “China-U.S.
Solar Technology Cooperation and Resource
Assessment Workshop,” held in Dezhou,
Shandong Province in December 2011.
The workshop focused on solar resource
assessment, solar project development, issues
encountered in distributed energy generation
deployment of PV, and initiation of a joint
solar PV round-robin testing activity (Fig. 2).
Next Steps
The workshops and subsequent activities
stimulated discussions with the National
Energy Administration on cooperation in solar
distributed energy generation, micro-grid
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
demonstration and deployment projects in China.
Future collaboration under the Solar Working
Group will be determined during the 3rd U.S.China Renewable Energy Industries Forum in
Shanghai in July 2013.
(4) Grid Integration Working Group
The grid integration task and working group
represents a strategic cooperation between the (1)
State Grid Corporation of China and its research
institutes in China, and (2) NREL, UVIG, the
Energy Foundation, and companies in the United
States. During FY12, the USCREP facilitated
several exchanges of grid integration delegations
and participation in workshops between the
United States and China. These exchanges
resulted in an increased understanding of the
technical issues affecting grid development in
both countries, promoted business development,
and provided information for advanced grid
integration technology development and future
planning in both countries. most crucial to the successful integration of
renewables on the grid in the United States
and China.
• Share information on lessons learned,
experiences, future plans for grid integration,
and technology trends.
• Provide for technical exchanges on state-ofthe-art grid integration studies.
Highlights and Accomplishments
• In partnership with the Energy Foundation,
the USCREP assisted several grid integration,
micro-grid, distributed energy generation,
and renewable energy resource forecasting
delegation visits from China to the United
States. U.S. experts also participated in
workshops organized in China on grid
integration and grid-interconnection technical
issues.
• The working group facilitated Chinese
participation in grid integration forums in
the United States and globally, including
UVIG meetings and the new 21st
Figure 3: Wind Integration Test Center in Zhangbei of the State Grid Corporation of China
Century Power Partnership, an
managed by CEPRI, which is a partner in the USCREP Grid Integration Activities.
initiative established by the Clean
Photograph courtesy of Wang Weisheng of the China Electric Power Research Institute
Energy Ministerial.
Objectives
• Increase mutual understanding of the issues
• The working group used
UVIG and other forums to
exchange information for grid
integration experiences and
discuss key challenges between
U.S. and China organizations.
Topics included wind and solar
f o r ecas tin g , d is p atch o r d e r,
demand response, market
mechanisms, controlling
renewable generation, ramping
requirements for integrating
renewables, net metering, load
balancing, battery storage,
operating reserves, and the use
China Renewable Energy 9
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
of electric loads as flexibility resources for
integration.
• Consultations were conducted with key
organizations in China including the China
Electricity Council, the China Power
Investment Corporation, and provincial grid
companies leading to increased understanding
on grid interconnection/integration standards
development.
• The USCREP assisted the 21st Century
Power Partnership in securing Chinese
participation in its events.
Next Steps
• DOE and NEA have decided to increase the
priority of cooperation for grid integration
and distributed energy generation in the
USCREP.
• Discussions at the 3rd Annual U.S.-China
R e n e w a b l e E n e rg y I n d u s t r i e s F o r u m
will determine the specific direction for
collaboration in this area over the coming
year.
• ERI and NREL will collaborate to develop
priority activities in this task.
(5)Standards, Testing, and Certification
Working Group
The standards, testing, and certification task and
working group conducts cooperative activities
to promote solar and wind standards and testing
development. NREL and UL, in partnership
with the China General Certification Center in
Beijing (CGC), the China National Accreditation
Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS),
and leading experts in China, work to promote
Chinese participation in international standards
forums, such as the IEC technical committees
for solar and wind (TC82 and TC88) and the
IEA. The Energy Cooperation Program in
Beijing also has established cooperation with
the National Energy Administration to prepare
10 China Renewable Energy
wind and solar standards comparison reports
and recommendations for joint standards
development. CGC in Beijing has developed a
number of MOUs for the purpose of promoting
broad solar and wind certification collaborations.
Objectives
• I n c r e a s e C h i n e s e p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n
international standards bodies, focusing on
International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) TC82 standards working groups
for solar PV standards and the IEC TC88
working groups for wind standards to foster
increased coordination on the harmonization
of international standards
• Support the international development
process for new QA and performance
standards for PV modules that can be
accepted broadly in the international
community
• Extend cooperation to other PV standards
areas
• Increase the level of collaboration between
U.S. and Chinese PV test centers to gain
improvements in uniformity of test results in
round-robin test exercises
• Facilitate communication and personnel
exchanges between PV and wind testing
centers in the United States and China
to promote consistency and increased
uniformity in test results and procedures as
well as mutual acceptance of solar and wind
test results and certification results across
centers.
Highlights and Accomplishments
• C h i n e s e p a r t i c i p a t i o n a n d o f f i c i a l
membership in international standards
forums, such as the IEC TC-82 solar PV
standards working groups, has increased
significantly due in part to the active
facilitation of the cooperation activities
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
Figure 4: Cooperation between test centers at NREL and the Chinese
Academy of Sciences
Source: Sarah Kurtz, NREL.
to develop new quality assurance (QA)
standards.
• ECP has prepared a U.S. China PV Grid
Integration Standards Comparison Study
designed to lay a good foundation for
international cooperation on PV standards
development in the future.
• A formal PV module round-robin testing
activity involving 19 testing laboratories in
China completed its first phase of domestic
testing with good results in July 2013
and will now extend the round robin to
international test centers.
• China and the United States cooperated in the
IEC TC88 PT-5 group, which is responsible
for developing the new 21400-5 standard for
Design and Manufacturing of Wind Turbine
Blades.
carried out under the USCREP.
• Since 2011 China has increased engagement
in several International Energy Agency
working groups, participated in the IEC TC88
committee for wind, and initiated contacts
with other standards organizations, such as
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers in the United States
• The USCREP established a list of PV
standards of mutual interest and facilitated
cooperation for joint development of several
new standards, including PV module material
standards and inverter qualification tests, and
PV system and grid integration standards.
• Chinese experts are participating in the new
PV Module Quality Assurance Task Force
Next Steps
• Gain approval of draft PV module QA
standards in IEC TC82 and continue PV
inverter and grid integration standards
development
• Complete the round-robin PV testing exercise
• Release ECP reports on wind and solar PV
integration standards at the 3rd Renewable
Energy Industries Forum.
Conclusion
The USCREP provides an important and
unique platform for cooperation between the
two countries. It represents both a U.S.-China
collaboration and a public-private partnership.
As seen above, the USCREP has accomplished
a number of key technical and commercial
objectives. In July 2013, the Third Renewable
Energy Industries Forum will engage additional
partners and establish the basis for building on
the USCREP’s past work in the coming year.
China Renewable Energy 11
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
China-U.S. Renewable Energy
Trade and Investment Trend
Peng Peng, Director of Policy Research, Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association
Renewable energy development has gradually become a common topic of
mankind. As not only the two largest energy consumption and greenhouse gas
emitting countries in this world, but the largest developing and developed
countries, China and U.S. are both facing challenges and sharing mutual
benefits on dealing with global climate change, developing clean and efficient
energy and ensuring energy security, etc. Cooperation in these areas has a
demonstration significance and global appeal.
12 China Renewable Energy
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
In fact, the two countries’ cooperation in
the field of renewable energy already had a
good start and certain foundations. The two
countries have signed a series of agreements,
such as "U.S.-China Peaceful Uses of Nuclear
Technology (PUNT) Agreement", the "China-US
Energy and Environment Cooperation Initiative
book", "China-US energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy protocol" and so on. Besides
cooperation, as China's economy continues
to develop, renewable energy, like clothing,
footwear, steel, tires used to, arises constant
trade friction and became one of the hotspots of
negotiations between the two governments.
countries will develop quickly and achieve a
win-win situation. In 2012, the investment to
Chinese renewable energy market was $ 67
billion, account for a quarter of total global
investment. The U.S. market ranked second
after China, with a $ 35.6 billion of investment.
By the end of 2012, the Chinese PV cumulative
installed capacity was about 7GW’; in the United
States, it was around 7.5GW. For wind power,
China's total wind power installed capacity is
70GW; U.S. cumulative wind power installed
capacity is 60GW. The two countries are very
close in terms of scale; and the trades between
them are extremely frequent too.
In the 21st century, the two countries in the
field of renewable energy product development
have made great achievements. Based on
different advantages for development, the scale
of renewable energy trade between the two
countries in recent years has grown significantly.
Currently, the cooperation and competition
coexist in their renewable energy field. The
competition will become more and more intense
as the market scale of renewable energy industry
grows bigger and bigger. However, this is a
normal market phenomenon. Under the strong
competition, the renewable energy of these two
1. Trade
Pew Charitable Trusts recently released a
research report. It shows that in 2011, China-U.
S. clean energy products and services trade
exceeded $ 8.5 billion. The figure below is the
2011 China-US clean energy trade flows in the
solar, wind and energy smart technologies. The
United States enjoyed surplus in these three
sectors. In 2011, American solar, wind and smart
technology products to China had trade surplus
of approximately $ 530 million. Considering
all aspects of the value chain, U.S. exports and
trade to China actually exceeded Chinese exports
Figure1 : Total U.S.-China Clean Energy Trade Flows in 2011 (in 100 millions of U.S. dollars)
Source: The US-China Clean Energy Technology Trade Relationship in 2011, The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2013
40
37.15
35
30
28.02
25
20
U.S.Export
15
10
5.35
5
China Export
8.38
3.89
2.67
0
Solar
Wind
Energy Smart
Technologies
China Renewable Energy 13
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
to the United States by $1.63 billion in 2011.
China's overall exports are significantly more
than the United States, but the United States has
advantage in the renewable energy sector, which
is distinct from other types of merchandise.
In renewable energy field, America's main
advantage comes from companies’ spirit of
innovation and entrepreneurship. For example,
U.S. companies excel in production and sale of
complex, high-margin and high-performance
goods. These include capital equipment for
manufacturing solar panels and LEDs, specialty
chemicals, and materials needed for production
of solar and wind products, as well as controls
for energy systems. In addition, U.S. companies
are more active overseas than their Chinese
counterparts. Chinese firms have only small
assembly operations in the United States for
renewable energy equipment.
world's top five solar cells manufacturers are
Chinese enterprises. United States is the world's
leading solar material suppliers and a major
global producer of polysilicon. Many Chinese
solar modules producers purchase crystalline
silicon from the U.S. market. According to the
latest Customs statistics, in April 2013, China
imported 7,265 tons of polysilicon—a 12.93%
growth from March and a 17.46% increase
on an annual basis. 1,939 tons of which were
from the United States, accounts for 26.7%
of total imports, increased by 37.5% from
March. For equipments, including photovoltaic
polycrystalline silicon ingot furnace and other
equipment, since domestic enterprises cannot
achieve large-scale production yet, most of them
were purchased from the United States. In 2011,
U.S. renewable energy equipment manufacturers’
exports to China reached $ 2.2 billion. These
data show that U.S. enjoys surplus on raw
materials and equipment exports to China. The
photovoltaic industry trade did not weaken the
U.S. companies, but also played a good role for
U.S. economic recovery.
1.1 Solar
Currently, the two countries’ enterprises in the
renewable energy field, especially in the field of
wind power and solar PV have formed a mutually
reliant relationship. In fact, the two countries
have common interests in the photovoltaic
field. China’s advantage is that it has largescale manufacturing so that it can realize the
large assembly of products like modules. The
1.2 Wind
In the wind power industry, there are already
some outstanding Chinese wind power
manufacturing enterprises listed on the American
Figure2: U.S.-China Solar Energy Trade Flows, 2011 (in millions of U.S. dollars)
Source: The US-China Clean Energy Technology Trade Relationship in 2011, The Pew Charitable Trust, 2013
3000
2500
2651
2204
2000
1500
1000
500
0
14 China Renewable Energy
684
502
0
10 0
0
12
289
151
14
0
0
U.S.Export
China Export
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
capital market. The U.S. large manufacturing
enterprises are also interested in the Chinese
wind power market. Most of the domestic wind
power equipment manufacturing companies
are very young and only finished the absorbing
of technologies for a quite short time; their
capability to independently do research and
development is generally not very strong,
therefore, the related products exports from them
to the American market are very few. While
most U.S. enterprises have rich experiences
in cross-border operations and technologies,
the booming Chinese wind power market is
important to them. Overall, more than $923
million worth of wind energy goods and services
was exchanged between China and U.S. in 2011.
Similar with solar, the U.S. wind industry excels
in relatively high-margin specialty materials
(fiberglass) produced by large firms and in
sensitive electronic and other control systems,
with U.S. trade to China totaling $534.9 million.
China’s largest trade contributors are wind
turbine towers—a trade driven almost entirely
by logistical concerns rather than pure cost
advantages—and turbine rotors manufactured
under a U.S.-China joint venture. China’s wind
energy exports to the United States totaled $388.7
million. Overall, U.S. firms had a net trade
surplus of just over $146 million.
2. Investment
2.1 The United States
U.S. investment in renewable energy has been
on the rise over the past decade, with over $300
billion invested in the industry since 2004.
Although annual new investment decreased
from 2011 to 2012, cumulative investment has
increased steadily. Large corporate entities are
increasingly embracing the industry, with VC
investments in start-ups markedly higher than
they were ten years ago.1 This investment has
driven down costs in the sector, with the prices
of wind and solar equipment decreasing by 40%
and 90% respectively. 2
This trend in investment has been driven largely
by private capital attracted to the industry by
beneficial U.S. federal and state policy support.3
Renewable energy in America has long been
a bipartisan issue; for the past 20 years, both
Democratic and Republican governors have
established and strengthened support for
renewable energy in their respective states.4
This practice of propping the renewable energy
industry up in its early stages follows a strategy
pioneered with traditional fossil-fuel industries,
all of which received government support before
achieving the scale necessary for their current
Figure3: U.S.-China wind energy trade flows, 2011 (in millions of U.S. dollars)
Source: The US-China Clean Energy Technology Trade Relationship in 2011, The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2013
325
350
300
250
196
200
160
150
50
0
103
73
100
0
0
26
7
0
0
34
U.S.Export
China Export
1
Shapiro, Andrew. REFF-Wall Street. New
York City. 25 June 2013.
2
U.S. Partnership for Renewable Energy
Finance, Renewable energy Policy Driving
Capital Investment.2013
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
China Renewable Energy 15
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
favorable cost structure.5 The solar and wind
industries have already achieved significant
improvements in their cost structure with
relatively smaller increases in scale, and there
is increasing optimism that the time horizon
for wind and solar energy to compete without
subsidies is within sight. 6
2.2 China
By some estimates, China is already the
leading global investor in renewable energy
infrastructure, and is increasing its overseas
investments in renewable energy, particularly
solar and wind.
In Domestic market, solar was the star performer
in China, jumping from $13.9 billion in asset
finance in 2011 to $24.7 billion in 2012. Wind,
meanwhile, managed only a small rise from
$26.3 billion to $27.2 billion as some projects
were delayed because of grid connection issues.
The surge in China’s solar development came
as clear national feed-in tariff, falling system
costs enabled developers to see a return. Also,
manufacturers, faced with oversupply in the
industry worldwide, opted to develop PV
projects to sale their productions.
For oversea market, China has made at least
124 investments in solar and wind industries
in 33 countries over the past decade. Of the
investments for which data were available, the
cumulative value amounted to nearly US$40
billion in 54 investments, and the cumulative
installed capacity added was nearly 6,000 MW
in 53 investments7. The United States was the
leading destination, with 8 wind and 24 solar
investments.
Conclusion
The intention of the United States to initiate
the antidumping and antisubsidy investigations
against China’s PV products or wind power
tower is to protect its domestic industry.
However, punitive tariffs are not helping the
5
development of the industry, but weakening
the entire country's competitiveness in the
international market. Disagreement cannot
be avoided at the early period of cooperation.
However, by finding a balance point between
both sides’ benefits in frictions, the trend of
cooperation is inevitable too. Punitive sanctions
appear to favor short-term measures, but in the
long run, the transaction costs will be detrimental
to both sides. The maximization of single benefit
has already been proved cannot exist long in
game theory and by doing it, the partial interests
already gained will also be lost. Cooperative
game is the right strategic choice for the longterm development. Win-win situation will benefit
both sides. In a long run, China and U.S. can
make their respective advantages in renewable
energy field complementary to each other.
For the United States, now its renewable
energy technology, energy saving and emission
reduction technology and R&D level were
already the world’s lead and are proving a
solid foundation for Sino-U.S. cooperation.
U.S.’s exports of advanced renewable energy
technology equipments to China will not only
help to strengthen China’s capability to deal with
energy and environmental problems, but will
also bring tremendous business opportunities
and profitable returns to U.S. investors. China
not only has the support from a huge market
demands, but its cheap and fine manufacturing
products will reduce the renewable development
costs for the whole world, including the
United States. Adhere to a win-win thinking
requires us to consider mutual benefits and
complementary advantages, so that to promote
a deep development of the strategic cooperation
in the Sino-U.S. renewable energy industry. By
doing that, the two sides will both be able to take
advantage of international society, to advocate
the sharing of green technologies and to promote
the establishment of cooperative mechanism
between countries in the world.
Special thanks to the American Council On Renewable
Energy (ACORE) for its contribution to this article.
McGinn, Dennis. "POLITICO." POLITICO. 24 June 2013. Web. 02 July 2013.
U.S. Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance, Renewable energy Policy Driving Capital Investment. 2013
7
WRI, China’s Overseas Investments in the Wind and Solar Industries :Trends and Drivers
6
16 China Renewable Energy
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
CHINA-US COLLABORATION ON
RENEWABLE ENERGY STANDARDS,
TESTING, AND CERTIFICATION
William Wallace, Sarah Kurtz, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Xie Bingxin, China General Certification Center
During November 2009, the U.S.-China Renewable Energy Partnership agreement
was authorized in Beijing by Presidents Obama and Hu from the U.S. and China. One
of the principal tasks under this new program is the collaboration of the United States
and China on the topic of renewable energy standards, testing, and certification with
an initial focus on solar PV and wind topics. Rapid development of renewable energy
technologies and markets, particularly for wind and solar applications, has created
demands for new and updated standards in both countries, consistency between testing
center results, harmonization of standards and certification processes, and potentially
mutual acceptance of testing and certification results. This paper will describe and
discuss the activities that address these issues, which have taken place under the bilateral
collaboration.
China Renewable Energy 17
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
1. INTRODUCTION
China’s rapid growth in the manufacturing and
deployment of renewable energy technologies,
particularly wind and solar, is creating internal
demands to solve technical issues representing
barriers to domestic market expansion, and to
more actively integrate with the international
community in collectively addressing standards,
testing and certification issues. Within the past
few years, China has become the leading country
for wind power installations, 12.9 GW in 2012
for a cumulative total capacity of 75.3 GW
(1), and the second largest PV module market
in the world, 5GW in 2012 for a cumulative
total capacity of 8.3 GW (2), with a rapidly
growing emerging domestic grid-connected
market. Cooperation at the international level
is becoming increasingly more important to
develop solutions for standards, testing and
certification issues, and as two of the leading
countries for renewable energy development and
deployment, China and the United States are
important partners in this process.
One of the mechanisms for specific cooperation
between the United States and China is the U.S.China Renewable Energy Partnership (USCREP),
which was established by a Memorandum of
Cooperation (MoC) signed in 2009 by the U.S.
Department of Energy and the Chinese National
Energy Administration (NEA). Five active areas
under the agreement include: i) policy, ii) solar
research and development, iii) wind research
and development, iv) grid integration, and v)
standards, testing, and certification. Cooperation
in principle for wind and solar standards,
testing, and certification is focused on work
within the framework of existing international
organizations.
2. SOLAR AND WIND STANDARDS
2.1 Cooperation Framework
Under the U.S.-China Renewable Energy
Partnership, the U.S. Department of Energy
through the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) is supporting cooperation
with China for standards, testing, and
certification focusing on solar PV and wind
technologies. The China General Certification
Center (CGC) in Beijing is the lead organization
for this cooperation on behalf of the Chinese
NEA. CGC provides the necessary linkages with
the national standards organizational structure
in China shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1. CGC also
provides linkages to a number of international
o rg a n i z a t i o n s i n v o l v e d i n t h e U S C R E P
cooperation.
CGC is the key organization in China for solar
PV and wind certification. As well as working
directly with industry and with testing centers
in China, certification organizations can also
operate their own testing centers and can be
involved in or lead new standards development.
For example, the CGC provides PV module
Fig. 1: Relationship of Chinese standards organizations
18 China Renewable Energy
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
TABLE 1: STANDARDS ORGANIZATIONS IN CHINA
AQSIQ
General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine
SAC
Standardization Administration of China
CNCA
Certification and Accreditation Administration
CB
Certification Body
CNAS
China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment
CCAA
China Certification and Accreditation Association
certification under its Golden Sun label; it also
operates a large-scale wind blade test center in
Baoding, China; and it is involved in developing
new solar and wind standards.
The development of domestic standards in China
is robust and can be classified as national and
industry standards. Certification regulations
are also developed for product certification. In
the Renewable Energy Partnership, the focus
of cooperation with China is participation
in international standards bodies, e.g., the
International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC), and with international standards and
testing and advisory organizations, e.g.
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and the
International Energy Agency (IEA). Technical
committees under the Standardization
Administration of China (SAC) perform similar
functions as technical committees in international
bodies; e.g., SAC’s TC 90 parallels the IEC’s TC
82 solar committee in overlapping interests.
The membership of the working group under the
Renewable Energy Partnership currently consists
of NREL, Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL),
Intertek, CGC, TÜV Rheinland Photovoltaic
Testing Laboratory LLC (TÜV PTL), and
the China Electric Power Research Institute
(CEPRI). The list is expanding. The Renewable
Energy Partnership also cooperates with solar
and wind standards activities of the Energy
Cooperation Program (ECP) in Beijing, which is
an organization of U.S. companies with business
interests in China (3).
2.2 Solar Standards Cooperation
In China, the solar standards cooperation effort
under the Renewable Energy Partnership is
led by CGC; and NREL coordinates U.S.
efforts. Globally, China leads solar PV module
production and is undergoing rapid expansion
in its domestic market development, with
large grid connected PV power plants and
large-scale PV building integrated systems
initially being supported by China’s Golden
Sun program (4), and now being supported in
larger-scale deployment programs of the NEA
and through market expansion. The volume
of manufacturing production and acceleration
of system deployment have created technical
problems that call for urgent attention and near
term solutions. Among these issues are needs
for quality control in manufacturing and quality
assurance standards, improved component and
system testing and certification procedures in
accordance with international standards, and
new system acceptance and grid interconnection
standards for solar PV systems.
During the IEC TC 82 meeting in May 2011
in Shanghai, visits of experts from NREL
and UL to Chinese companies and standards
experts facilitated U.S.-China cooperation on
solar standards. During the past two years,
the U.S. and China have collaborated in
standards development as reflected in Table
2, which provides a subset of standards under
China Renewable Energy 19
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
TABLE 2: SUBSET OF STANDARDS OF U.S.-CHINA MUTUAL INTERESTS IN DEVELOPMENT
Organization
Standard
Description
IEC JWG1
IEC 62257 Series
Updated series of new standards based on Chinese GB standards for Solar Street Lights, PV Power Solar
Home Systems and Village Power Plants
IEC WG-2
IEC 62804 ed. 1
System Voltage Durability Test for Crystalline Silicon Modules – design Qualification and Type Approval
IEC WG-2
IEC 62805-1 ed. 1
IEC 62805-2
Test Method for Total Haze and Spectral Distribution of Haze of Transparent Conductive Coated Glass
for Solar Cells, and Optical characterization of transparent conductive coated Glass for Solar Cells Part 2:
Test Method for Effective Hemispherical Transmittance and Reflectance
IEC WG-3
IEC 61727
Photovoltaic Systems-Characteristics of the Utility Interface
IEC WG-3
IEC 62446
Grid Connected PV Systems – Minimum Requirements for System Documentation, Commissioning Tests
and Inspection (Update)
IEC WG-3
IEC 62817
Solar Trackers for PV Systems – Design Qualification
IEC WG-3
IEC 62548
Design Requirements for Photovoltaic Arrays
IEC WG-3
IEC 62738
Design Guidelines and Recommendations for Photovoltaic Power Plants
IEC WG-3
IEC 62748
PV Systems on Buildings
IEC WG-6
IEC 62109-3
IEC 62109-4
Safety of Power Converters for Use in Photovoltaic Power Systems – Part 3: Particular Requirements for
PV Modules with Integrated Electronics and Part 4; Particular Requirements for Combiner Box
IEC WG-6
IEC 62606
General Requirement for Arc Fault Detection Devices
IEC WG-6
IEC 62093 ed. 2
Balance of System Components for Photovoltaic Systems-Design Qualification Natural Environments
(Inverter Standard)
IEEE
IEEE 1547-4
IEEE Guide for design, Operation, and Integration of Distributed Resource Island Systems with Electric
Power Systems (Micro-Grid) – Reference for new code for micro-grids
PVQA
IEC Target
Technical Specifications for: Quality Management Systems – Particular Requirements for the application
of ISO 9001:2008 for Photovoltaic Modules
development in IEC, IEEE, and other standards
organizations of mutual interest. These interests
cover a broad range of issues across the value
chain for solar PV commercialization, including
materials standards and PV module quality
assurance standards, rating systems, and test
procedures; balance-of-system component
standards for inverters; and standards at the
system and grid-interconnection levels. As
installed PV systems become larger and represent
a significant penetration on local and regional
grids, utility companies are also becoming more
concerned with the operation of intermittent
resources on grids. As a result of the increasing
interest in China’s participation in the IEC, with
the help of the IEC TC82 Secretariat (Liang Ji
is the Assistant Secretary of TC82), CGC, and
other China standards organizations, active
20 China Renewable Energy
membership has increased to 29 members in
2013 participating in all TC 82 working groups.
2.3 PV Module Quality Assurance Task
Force
One specific standards initiative that is being
assisted by the Renewable Energy Partnership
is the development of a new international PV
module rating system and quality assurance
standards, initiated by NREL and AIST. The
objective of the initiative is to develop a new
PV module rating system to assess PV module
durability over decades of exposure to regional
stresses under variable climatic conditions. This
goes beyond the IEC 61215, IEC 61646, and
IEC 62108 qualification test standards that set
a minimum design criterion. The development
of a single set of test procedures to improve
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
the accuracy of quantitative PV lifetime
predictions would meet not only the needs of PV
manufacturers, but also reduce risks for investors,
insurance companies, project developers, and
the design of incentive programs. New quality
assurance standards will relate to reliability of
module design, quality assurance in module
manufacturing processes, and test procedures.
International participation in the new initiative is
facilitated by the establishment of a PV Quality
Assurance (QA) Task Force and interactive
website (http://pvqataskforceqarating.pbworks.
com). Ten task groups address: i) guidelines for
manufacturing consistency, ii) testing for thermal
and mechanical fatigue, iii) testing for humidity,
temperature, and bias, iv) testing for diodes,
shading and reverse bias, v) testing for UV,
temperature, and humidity, vi) communication of
the results, vii) PV QA testing for wind loading,
viii) PV QA testing for thin-film PV, ix) PV QA
testing for CPV, and x) QA testing for connectors
in junction boxes. Under the Renewable
Energy Partnership, an outreach effort has been
continuously directed at Chinese companies and
standards experts, resulting in significant Chinese
participation and support of the initiative. CGC,
Trina Solar, QC Solar, and Yingli Americas are
a few of the 18 Chinese companies supporting
the Task Force. One recent result of Task Force
activities with China support is the development
of a proposal for supplemental requirements to
ISO 9001-2008 for quality management systems
for PV manufacturing (5).
2.4 Wind Standards Cooperation
Due to the rapid development of wind
technology and large scale deployment of wind
in China, there is a concurrent rapid development
of China’s system of national and industry
standards to keep pace with changing needs.
The Renewable Energy Partnership exchanges
information with the China General Certification
Center and the Standardization Department of the
China Electrical Equipment Industry Association
to identify existing standards and monitor the
development of new standards in the wind
industry. There is a focus on standards associated
with large-scale grid connected technologies, but
small wind turbine standards are also of interest.
A priority of the Renewable Energy Partnership
is participation in international standards bodies,
such as the IEC, for direct cooperation in the
wind sector. One example of China and United
States cooperation is joint participation in the
China Renewable Energy 21
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
IEC TC88 PT5 for wind turbine blade development. Project
Team 5 (PT5) covers a technical scope of blade design, blade
manufacturing requirements, test methods, blade handling, and
field operation and maintenance, and the chairman and secretary
of PT5 are from China and the United States respectively.
3. TESTING COLLABORATION
3.1 U.S. and Chinese PV Test Center Collaboration
Cooperation between PV testing centers in the United States and
China under the Renewable Energy Partnership was initiated in
2009 with exchanges between NREL’s PV Outdoor Test Facility
(OTF) in Golden, Colorado, and the Chinese Academy of Science
(CAS) system of PV test centers managed by the Institute for
Electrical Engineering in Beijing. The CAS test centers reside in
Beijing, Nanjing, Xining, and Lhasa.
Test center research collaboration consists of: i) comparison
of cell and module calibration procedures and exchange of
calibrated samples, ii) examination of standardized cell/module
measurement and test procedures and recommendations for
improvements in implementing relevant standards and best
practices, iii) checking calibrations of solar simulators for indoor
measurements and solar radiation measurements for outdoor tests,
and iv) examining challenges for differences in test conditions
in north and central China vs. dry, high altitude conditions in
western China for outdoor measurements. NREL also has had
long term collaboration with the National Institute of Metrology
in Beijing for exchange of calibrated cells.
3.2 PV Round Robin Test Activity
During 2011, the China General Certification Center initiated the
organization of a PV module and cell round robin test activity,
which was formally announced in Dezhou during December 2011.
The lead organizations for this activity are the China National
Accreditation Service for conformity Assessment (CNAS), the
China National Institute of Metrology (NIM), and the China
General Certification Center (CGC). NREL serves as an advisor
to the activity and will be one of the participating test centers
under the Renewable Energy Partnership. China is conducting the
round robin testing as an international activity with prospective
participating test centers in China, including Taiwan, Japan,
Germany, and the United States.
The objectives of the PV round robin test activity are: i) to
compare and assess the level of conformity between Chinese
PV test center testing procedures and results, both internally
and with international test centers, ii) identify and quantify
22 China Renewable Energy
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
Fig.2 A representative result of the China domestic Round Robin Test
Deviation of PV module parameters
0.03
0.02
0.01
Isc
0
‐0.01
Voc
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Pmp
‐0.02
‐0.03
sources of discrepancies in the test data, and
iii) recommend improvements in testing and
calibration procedures, test center operations,
and system for monitoring testing centers and
their accreditation and use of testing results for
PV module certification in China. Test centers
will follow the IEC 60904-1 measurement of
photovoltaic current-voltage characteristics
international standard.
In December 2012, 19 Chinese PV labs
completed the round robin tests domestically.
After 6 months of analysis, the report for the
domestic results will be released by CNAS and
CGC in July, 2013. The results indicate that the
variances between most labs are in an acceptable
range. A representative distribution of the results
can be seen in Fig. 2. In the next phase, CGC and
NREL will initiate the international component
of testing.
3.3 U.S. and Chinese Wind Test Center
Collaboration
Mutual interests between Chinese and U.S. wind
testing centers accommodate the full range of
testing across the value chain for component
development, turbine assembly, field testing,
deployment and commercialization; including,
wind turbine blade testing, dynamometer testing,
turbine type testing, and certification. Mutual
interests include consulting in setting up new
test centers; comparing test procedures and
results; cooperation for round robin testing,
of actual components or review of test results;
and exchange of personnel to share experiences
between test centers.
Under the Renewable Energy Partnership,
information exchange has occurred between
the testing facilities of NREL’s National Wind
Technology Center in Golden, Colorado and
several test centers in China under the Chinese
Academy of Sciences Institute for Electrical
Engineering (dynamometer testing) and Institute
of Engineering Thermophysics (blade testing),
the China Electric Power Research Institute (field
testing), the China General Certification Center
(blade testing), and others.
For blade testing internationally, there are only
a few test centers capable of accommodating
the new large blades under development for
large capacity and offshore wind turbines. The
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Wind
Technology Testing Center (WTTC) is operating
a Large Blade Testing Facility, supported by the
U.S. Department of Energy, capable of testing
blades up to 90 meters. Representatives of this
center are discussing collaboration with a new,
large-blade testing center in Baoding under the
China General Certification Center, including
technical staff exchanges and implementation
and interpretation of the IEC 614 0 0 - 2 3
international blade test standards.
China Renewable Energy 23
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
4. CERTIFICATION
Currently for solar and wind technologies, the
requirements of multiple testing and certification
in different countries represent barriers to
the global deployment of renewable energy,
adding expense for manufacturers and project
developers, and uncertainty for investors,
insurers, and other stakeholders. In China
the lack of mutual acceptance of test results
and certifications between Chinese and other
international testing and certification centers is
one of the factors that affects both the export and
import of renewable energy equipment.
One effort to address lack of transferability of
test and certification results is the IEC TC88
committee’s effort for harmonizing a number
of wind turbine standards and conformity for
testing and certification, including a broad range
of interested stakeholders. The China General
Certification Center is also playing a leading
role in China to engage testing and certification
centers in Europe and the United States to
promote mutual acceptance of solar and wind
testing results and certifications. The CGC has
signed several agreements for this purpose with
Intertek, TÜV Rheinland, UL, GH, DEWI-OCC
and BV.
5. CONCLUSION
Collaboration under the U.S.-China Renewable
Energy Partnership is one mechanism that
is contributing to the overall framework for
cooperation between China and the United
States related to renewable energy standards,
testing, and certification issues. Active
cooperation is being facilitated between solar
and wind standards experts and organizations,
between test centers, and between certification
organizations. The cooperation is also being
conducted in principle within the framework
of participation in international organizations.
Standards, testing, and certification are
components of a broader set of issues that impact
renewable energy technology development and
deployment, financing, and market development.
24 China Renewable Energy
The China General Certification Center is
aggressively reaching out to a broad stakeholder
group of manufacturers, project developers,
banks, financial institutions/investors,
insurance companies, and others to encourage
communication on standards and certification
issues that impact the decision making process
of these groups.
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge Wan Lin, formerly
at the China General Certification Center, for
his leadership and support for the development
of this China U.S. cooperation for standards,
testing, and certification. We also acknowledge
the support of Liang Ji at the Underwriters
Laboratory for his support of these activities.The
support of numerous colleagues in China and
the United States is gratefully acknowledged,
including but not limited to John Wohlgemuth,
Peter Hacke, Keith Emery, Paul Veers, Ye Li, and
Derek Berry at the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory; and Zhengxin Liu, Rui Jia at the
Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Shilin Fan,
Chenggang Shi, Wenxin Li, and Kewei Liu at the
China General Certification Center. The support
of the National Energy Administration in China
and the U.S. Department of Energy for general
administration and oversight of the U.S.-China
Renewable Energy Partnership is gratefully
acknowledged. This paper was prepared and
partially funded through the support of the U.S.
Department of Energy under Contract No. DEAC36-08GO28308.
REFERENCES
(1) 2012 China Wind Power Industry Map, Chinese
Wind Energy Association, 2013
(2) Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics 20132017, European Photovoltaic Industry Association,
2013
(3) U.S. China Clean Energy Cooperation, U.S.
Department of Energy, January 2011
(4) China’s Solar Future: A Recommended China PV
Policy Roadmap 2.0, Semi PV Group, April 2011
(5) Proposal for a Guide for Quality Management
Systems for PV Manufacturing: Supplemental
Requirements to ISO 9001-2008, P. Norum, I. Sinicco,
Y. Eguchi, S. Lokanath, W. Zhou, G. Brueggemann,
A. Mikonowicz, m. Yamamichi, and S. Kurtz, NREL
Technical Report, NREL/TP-5200-5799, May 2013
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
US-China Energy Cooperation
Program (ECP) Supporting U.S. China
Renewable Energy Partnership
US-China Energy Cooperation Program (ECP)
The US-China Energy Cooperation Program(ECP) is the commercial implementing arm of US-China
clean energy collaboration. Foundedin September 2009 by 24 US companies, ECP is the only private
sector-led nongovernmental organization dedicated to clean energy business development, market
expansion, foreign direct investment and job creation in both the United States and China. With official
support of the USand Chinese governments, ECP’s public-private platform empowers member companies
to becomepart of a total solution industry consortium to deliver transformative business development
outcomes that require a collective and coordinated effort.
US government agenciesDepartment of Commerce (DOC), Department of Energy (DOE) and the
US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) - together with Chinese government agenciesNational
Energy Administration (NEA) and Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) signed bilateral Memorandums
of Understanding in support of ECP. The five agencies serve as ECP’s official government advisers.
China Renewable Energy 25
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
developing communication interface standards
for power distribution and consumption. The
outcome will be a demonstration pilot for the
new integrated communication model with the
State Grid Corporation of China.
Smart Grid Automatic Demand
Response Pilot Project
ECP members join ECP through different
working groups (WGs) to work on different areas.
And also through join different WGs, member
companies can form industry value chains.
Within each working group, members establish
a sector development road mapfor the short-,
medium- and long-term. Through this process,
each working group identifies annualbusiness
development objectives and concrete initiatives
for implementation.
The ECP Renewable Energy Working Group
(REWG) and Smart Grid Working Group
(SGWG) actively support the “U.S. China
Renewable Energy Partnership” and have
achieved the following outcomes
Establish New Industries and
Markets
Integrated Smart Grid Communication
Model Study
With support from NEA and USTDA, SG WG
launched in September 2012 the Integrated Smart
Grid Communication Model Study with the
China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI)
and the State Grid Corporation of China. Led by
SG WG co-chair Cisco, the study will review
international smart grid communication standards
and explore innovative approaches to establish a
common system model for both the power grid
and communication networks. It will focus on
26 China Renewable Energy
In a partnership with Tianjin Economic
Technological Development Area (TEDA) and
the China Electric Power Research Institute
(CEPRI) and State Grid Corporation of China,
SG WG co-chair Honeywell and member
AECOM have implemented China’s first smart
grid automatic demand response pilot project
in Tianjin. With support from USTDA, DOE,
DOC, NEA and NDRC, the project seeks to
reduce electricity load, cost, and emissions and
improve grid stability in commercial, industrial
and government buildings while improving
the stability of the power grid. The project was
completed in November 2012.
Influence Regulatory Policy
Global Photovoltaic Grid Integration
Standards Comparative Study
Together with the China Electricity Council
(CEC) and China Electric Power Research
Institute (CEPRI), RE WG led by UL
is implementing a comparative study of
photovoltaic (PV) grid integration standards
in China, the United States and the European
Union. The global comparison will assess
industry and regulatory norms and compare
technical issues, such as the utility permission
procedure for PV power systems. Launched in
September 2012, the study’s objectives are to
serve as a reference for China’s development
of policies, standards and utility permission
procedures for PV power systems as well as to
recommend potential international standards
based on Chinese technical specifications.
US Wind Power Investment Manual
EFI WG co-chair Baker Botts and RE WG cochair UPC Renewables produce the “Manual
on Wind Power Investment in the USA,” a
China-U.S. Collaboration on Renewable Energy
bilingual guide for Chinese investors seeking to
pursue wind power investment opportunities in
the United States. With support from member
Tang Energy and Chinese partner Longyuan
Power Group, the guide features case studies
of wind power investment projects in Texas
and California by highlighting the regulatory
process for investmentexecution. The manual
was officially released at the Second USChina Renewable Energy Industry Forum held
in Washington, DC, in September 2011 and
is officially endorsed by the US Department
of Energy and the Chinese National Energy
Administration.
Wind Power Grid Integration Policy
Exchange
At the invitation of the grid division of NEA’s
Electric Power Department, the SG WG has
provided policy briefings on global wind power
grid connection and dispatch mechanisms and
rules. Member companies led by UL, GE and
FloDesign presented the findings, which will
serve as a reference for NEA’s renewable energy
grid integration policy development.
For 2013m the ECP REWG and
SGWG 2013 Annual Business
Development Objectives include:
US Wind Farm Operation Best Practices
Led by co-chair UPC Renewables with support
from UL and GE, the RE WG is conducting a
study of successful cases of wind farm operation
and management in the United States. The
study’s objectives are to introduce to Chinese
industry stakeholders the key standards related
to preliminary work of wind farm development,
construction, operation and management as well
as the standards of wind turbines and control
systems. In addition, it analyzes the wind
power industry development,market conditions
and policies with a focus on wind power
grid connection. The study was completed in
November 2012.
1. Module stability and safety evaluation
workshop
2. Provincial Trips to Yunnan, Xinjiang and
Jiangsu triptry to engage provincial and
local governments and Chinese companies
to showcase memcos' technologies, products
and solutions in renewable energy with the
purpose of securing access to commercial
projects.
3. Actively participate in U.S. China Coresearch Projects:
o Sino-U.S. New Energy Investment
and Financing Mechanism and Policy
Innovation Study
o New Energy Micro-gird/ Smart Grid Pilot
Project
o S i n o - U . S . Wi n d P o w e r, P V s o l a r
(Development and Utilization), Water
Heating Equipment Standard Comparison
Study (Wind Power Standards)
o Comparison of New Energy Integration
Technology Standards between U.S. and
China
o N e w E n e r g y P o w e r O p e r a t i o n
Management Training
China Renewable Energy 27
Industry Insight
High RE scenarios for China
in 2050
Research team of CNREC
China National Renewable Energy Centre (CNREC) has recently
prepared comprehensive long-term scenarios for the Chinese
energy system, using tools, developed in cooperation with experts
from NREL, Denmark and Japan. The tools and methodologies
developed is unique in a Chinese context and brings CNREC is
front as leading think tank on renewable energy in China.
CREAM – the analytic platform
In 2011, the renewable energy experts within NDRCs Energy Research Institute had an on-going
dialogue with experts at NREL regarding development of state-of-the-art simulation tools for short-term
and long-term analyses of RE deployment in the Chinese energy system. When the Chinese National
Renewable Energy Centre was established in early 2012 as part of the Energy Research Institute is was
decided to develop such tools as part of CNRECs analytic platform.
Today –one and a half year after the decision – China Renewable Energy Analyses Model (CREAM) is
developed and used in CNRECs first 2050 scenario analyses. Experts from NREL and Denmark have
assisted CNRECs expert in the development based on experiences from the use of the US-based REEDS
model and the Danish Balmorel model. In addition, the Japanese Institute for Environmental Studies has
support CNREC in the model development.
28 China Renewable Energy
Industry Insight
CREAM has four different sub-models, which
are “soft-linked” though data ex-change between
the individual models.
The future development in the energy demand for
the different sectors is calcu-lated in CREAMDEMAND – a spreadsheet based model for
the industry sector the housing sector and the
transport sector. The model determines the future
energy demand based on the development in a
number of main drivers such as population, GDP
and energy-to-GDP ratio.
The core model is the CREAM-EDO model
for the electricity and district heating sector,
which is a bottom-up mixed integer linear
programming model, making least-cost
optimisation of the dispatch of the power
system, taking into account constraints from the
transmission system, resource availability etc.
The model is able to invest in new power plants
and new transmission lines if it is technical and
economical beneficial. The model is specially
designed to take into account development and
integration of renewable energy, but it comprises
the whole energy system, including existing and
possible new coal-fired power plants. The model
is implemented on a provincial level, and it can
give result for provinces, regions and for the
Chinese power and heating system as such.
The macro economic impact of the transformation of the future energy system is analysed by
the CREAM-CGE model, which is an economic
macro model. The results from CREAM-EDO
model are used as input to CREAM-CGE and
the output is the impact on GDP, job creation,
the environmental impacts etc. for the whole
Chinese society.
The last model in the CREAM modelsuite is CREAM-TECH - a Levelized Cost
of Energy model, able to a technology to
technology comparison of lifetime cost and the
competitiveness between RE technologies and
fossil-fuel technologies.
Three scenarios for development of the energy system to
2050
In order to analyse different development paths
and different end-goal for the 2050 system three
scenarios have been defined with focus on the
supply side development and supply side policy
measures.
The Reference scenario is the baseline scenario,
illustrating a development where the 12th 5-year
plan ambitions for the RE development is the
driving force.
The RE Max scenarioon the other hand illustrates
how strong ambitions for RE development
could lead to an energy system with drastic
reduction of the use of fossil fuels and a high
share of renewable energy in 2050. The main
drivers in the scenario are ambitious CO2 caps
and pollution reduction, stop for new coal-fired
power plants after 2015, switch from fossil fuel
to electricity in the transport and industry sectors,
and introduction of market-based dispatch in the
electricity sector.
The third scenario, the Optimisation scenario,
has more focus on economic measures and
regulatory measures, i.e. the main drivers for the
development in this scenario are carbon taxation,
marketization of the power sector, and switch to
electricity in other sectors.
Energy consumption
All scenarios assumed same economic, social
development and energy service by 2050, by
then the population being back to 1.3 billion,
urbanization rate reaching 80% and GDP
growing six timesthe 2010 level. The consumers
and other have the same use of electric
appliances as televisions etc., use the same area
of heated (and cooled) floor space per inhabitant,
drive the same number of kilometres by car etc.
This level of consumption of energy services is
set to be equal to that of developed countries as
e.g. the European Union in 2050.
China Renewable Energy 29
Industry Insight
instead of fossil fuels.
Industry
The energy consumption in the Chinese industry
sector, excluding the energy industry itself,
constitutes more than 60% of the total final
energy consumption today. It is assumed that the
future development of the industry sector will
lead to higher energy efficiency and also to a
gradually change from heavy energy consuming
industry to service industry and other industries
with lower energy demand. As a result the energy
demand in industry and GDP development
will increasingly decouple. Increased use of
renewable energy in the industry sector is a
challenge. It is possible to use biomass instead
of fossil fuels, but due to the limited resources
of biomass it can only replace a minor share of
the fossil fuel. In the calculations it has been
assumed that smaller amounts of fossil fuels are
replaced by bio energy, electricity, solar heat,
heat pumps and district heating in the RE Max
scenario and the Optimisation scenario.
Transport
Within transport, there is a large potential for
more efficient use of energy, as electric cars
are much more efficient than gasoline and
diesel cars. In the RE Max scenario and the
Optimization scenario, 80% of the cars are
assumed to be elec-tric cars in 2050. Besides,
large vehicles are assumed to use biofuels
Buildings
For the heating of buildings, it is possible to use
solar heat and heat pumps in-stead of fossil fuels.
In the RE Max scenarioand the Optimization
scenario, it is assumed that all buildings in
rural areas are supplied 100% by solar, heat
pumps and / or biomass. This energy conversion
will also promote prosperity and better living
conditions in rural areas.
In cities, solar heat and heat pumps will probably
only be able to cover a smaller share of the heat
demand, due to the limited outer space in the
cities. On the other hand, use of district heating
is a possibility in the cities in the Northern part
of China.
In the RE Max scenarioand the Optimization
scenario, it has been assumed that 20% of the
consumption of fossil fuels is replaced by solar
heating and 20% is replaced by heat pumps. It
would be possible also to use some more district
heating for these buildings, and this could be
investigated further in the second phase of the
study.
According to preliminary caculation, The total
energy consumption on an energy basis1 in 2050
Figure 1: energy consumption in traffic and building heating
Energy consumption for heating of buildings, million
MWh
Energy consumption for transport, million MWh
6000
Electricity
5000
5000
Geothermal heat etc.
4000
4000
3000
2000
Electricity
3000
Biofuel
2000
Gasoline and diesel
1000
0
2010
Reference RE Max
2050
2050
30 China Renewable Energy
Solar heat
Biomass
District heating
1000
Natural gas
0
2010
Reference
2050
RE Max
2050
Oil
Coal
Industry Insight
is 40,983 TWh in the Reference scenario, 38,691
TWh in the Optimi-sation scenario and 36,866
TWh in the RE Max scenario. The lower energy
con-sumption in the Optimisation and the RE
Max scenarios is caused by the higher share of
wind power and solar power, which have no
conversion losses from fuel to electricity. The
electricity consumption in 2050 is 10,463 TWh
in the Reference Scenario, 13,743 TWh in the
Optimisation scenario, and 13,800 TWh in the
RE Max scenario.
the current energy system. In 2010, the primary
consumption of fossil fuels in China was 24,000
million MWh. In the Reference scenario in
2050, the consumption is expected to increase to
33,000 million MWh. In the RE Max scenario,
the consumption of fossil fuels is reduced to
16,000 million MWh in 2050, or less than half
of the amount in the Reference scenario. As the
renewable energy sources used in the RE Max
scenario are domestic resources, this scenario
improves the security of supply.
The shareof renewable energy
and security of supply
Electricity and district heating
The figure below shows the energy sources in
primary energy demand in 2010 and in 2050 in
the RE Max scenario.
In 2010, the share of renewable energy was
about 9%2. In the RE Max scenario, the share
of renewable energy grows to 56% in 2050,
and the share of non-fossil fuels (renewable
energy and nuclear energy) grows to 69%. In the
Optimization scenario, the share of renewable
energy grows to 48% in 2050.
In the scenarios with high share of RE the fuel
consumption is much more diversified than in
As in other countries, renewable energy is mainly
used for electricity production. Wind power and
solar power are of course directly for use in the
power sector, but also biomass resources (mostly
biogas) are suitable for electricity production –
typically in combination with district heating.
In all scenarios hydropower and wind power
are the main RE resources. Hydro-power is
economically very attractive, but the potential
for further development of the hydropower is
limited. Therefore the high or extreme high
level development is assumed in all three
scenarios. Wind power has a high potential
and the development of the resource is steady
figure2: The energy sources in primary energy demand in 2010 and in 2050 in the RE Max scenario
1
Not converted to coal equivalents, see next note.
2
In this summary the RE share is calculated using the standard Chinese methodology, the coal equivalent calculation. In this calculation electricity
produced without the use of fuels is converted to the equivalent amount of coal, which would have been consumed for electricity production if the
electricity had been produced at a coal-fired power plant with average efficiency.
China Renewable Energy 31
Industry Insight
Figure 3: installed capacity of all kinds of renewable energy under various scenarios
growing throughout the period to 2050, most in
the RE Max scenarios where around 2800 GW is
installed in 2050.
Solar power has also a huge resource potential.
The investment cost and the low number of
utilisation hours imply that solar power currently
is one of the more expensive RE technologies. In
the study, it is assumed that the rapid cost reduction for solar PV will continue although not in
the same pace as the last 10 years.
The cost reduction and the higher CO2
reduction requirements in the RE Max and the
Optimisation scenarios allow for considerable
investments in solar power by the end of the
period. In the RE Max scenario 1000 GW is
installed in 2050. Until then the solar power
deployment is more limited in all scenarios.
Balancing and curtailment
32 China Renewable Energy
The high amount of wind and solar in the
RE Max scenario gives a special chal-lenge
in matching the electricity production with
the demand. In the study the balancing of the
electricity system has been examined in detail,
looking at an hourly dispatch of all power plants,
taking into consideration limitations in the
system, including the need for district heating.
The hourly dispatch for one week in 2050 is
illustrated in the figure 4. The simulation shows
that it is possible to balance the system, even
with a very high share of renewables. It requires
however a much more flexible dispatch of the
power plants and interconnectors as well as
investments in new transmission capacity.
Transmission
A strong transmission system is necessary to
optimise the use of the available energy resources
in China. In all three scenario the transmission
grid is expanded and the flow between the
Industry Insight
Figure 4: Operation of the power system during a spring week. In the RE Max scenario, thermal power and hydropower are adjusted
in order to integrate the large amounts of wind and solar power.
regions increases. Figure 5 illustrated the
expansion and the flows in the RE Max scenario
in 2050. The annualised transmission investment
in 2050 in the RE Max scenario is around 500
billion Yuan per year, app. 6% of the total
annualised cost in the power sector.
The environment
CO2 emissions are reduced substantially in both
the RE Max scenario and the Optimization
scenario, compared to the Reference scenario.
This is because of the high share of renewable
energy. CO 2 emissions are also reduced
compared to today’s emissions, because of the
high share of renewable energy in the RE Max
scenario and because of an increased use of
nuclear energy in all of the scenarios, compared
to today.
Emissions of SO2, NOx and particles affect the
local environment. Increased use of solar, wind,
hydropower and geothermal resources will
reduce these emissions in the long run. There
are also alternatives available for short term
reductions of these emissions: flue gas cleaning,
use of natural gas instead of coal and oil,
increased use of district heating (in combination
with flue gas cleaning at district heating plants)
and use of catalysts etc. in transport.
Direct costs
In the Reference scenario, the total energy
costs grow from 4,600 billion CNY in 2010
to 11,000 billion CNY in 2050. The RE Max
scenario ends up by being the most expensive,
as the 2050 costs are 12,000 billion CNY, while
the Optimization scenario turns out to cost
11,700 CNY in 2050. These costs comprise fuel
costs, costs of investments in energy plants and
transmission networks and O&M of these plants
China Renewable Energy 33
Industry Insight
Figure 5: the grid capacity expansion and power flow
Added capacity (GW)
Between regions and within regions
Export and flow (TWh)
By regions and between regions
3.410
573
21
7
213
144
- 284
Macroeconomic effects
For the macroeconomic effects of the transition
of the energy system the CNREC’s CREAM
CGE model has been used to compare the RE
Max scenario with the Reference scenario.
In the RE Max scenario, the total value added in
the RE sectors (Biomass, Solar, Wind, Hydro) is
6.1 trillion Yuan, contributing to 2.6% of GDP in
2050 in China. If Nuclear is included, the total
contribution of non-fossil energy industry to
GDP is 3.1%.
The development of RE industry also increased
the economic output of related industries in the
whole economy structure in China. The CREAM
CGE model esti-mated 6 trillion Yuan output is
increased in other main industries (e.g. Service,
R&D, Transport, Construction etc.) in 2050. 5.6
34 China Renewable Energy
569
48
1
-774
-478
1
and networks. The costs estimates are rather
uncertain, as it is diffi-cult to predict future
energy prices. The costs presented here are
based on oil and natural gas costs from IEA and
Chinese domestic costs of coal and bio energy.
5
7
97
19
1 .5
297
87
1
52
572
1.158
47
827
256
1.252
977
49
3
154
189
-1.711
4
million more jobs are created in these sectors
because of RE development comparing to the
reference scenario.
Next steps
The fast-track scenario analysis with its
preliminary results is a warm up for CNREC to
do more comprehensive scenario studies together
with a number of Chinese key stakeholders
and institutions. This study will go more into
detail regarding assumptions and possibilities
for the development of renewable energy than
it has been possible within the short time frame
of the current scenario study. The fast-track
study does however demonstrate that CNREC
is capable of carrying though state-of-the-art
energy system analyses, which can contribute
to policy decisions with huge impact for the
future deployment of renewable energy in
China. CNRECs CREAM tool will also be an
important part of CNRECs future cooperation
with international renewable energy experts,
reinforcing the existing cooperation with the US
and leading renewable energy frontrunners in
Europe.
Industry Insight
Current Status of PV in China
Wang Sicheng, Researcher of Energy Research Institute of NDRC
1. Background and Policies
China is facing serious pressure on energy supply and GHG emission. China is the largest country in
GHG emission since 2007, China is the largest producer and user of electricity, China is the largest
importer of coal, and the dependence of imported oil is as high as 56%. China has to do efforts to
alleviate the problems. Renewable energy (RE) development is the basic strategy in China for energy
sustainability and GHG reduction. Solar PV will play a key role in renewable energy development in
China.
The China RE Law was effect on 1st Jan., 2006 to support RE and updated in 2009. Based on RE Law,
there are two funds can be used to support RE. One of the fund is the RE Surcharge collected from all
end users of electricity at the rate of 0.8 cents/kWh and about 20-25 billion Yuan will be collected each
year, the other is Special RE Fund directly controlled by Ministry of Finance. Currently, RE Surcharge
is used to support ground-mounted LS-PV through the way of Feed-In Tariff (FIT) and the Special
RE Fund is used to support government sponsored projects: PV Building Project and Golden-Sun
Demonstration. The status of government supported projects is listed bellow:
China Renewable Energy 35
Industry Insight
Table 1-1 Government Sponsored PV Projects
Large Scale PV
Phases
Approved Capacity
Feed-in Tariffa
First Bidding 2009
2 projicts, 20MW
FIT = 1.0928 yuan/kWh
Second Bidding 2010
13 projects, 280MW
FIT = 0.7288-0.9907 yuan/kWh
2011 FIT
2000 MW
FIT = 1.15 yuan/kWh
2012 FIT
2000MW
FIT = 1.0 yuan/kWh
Total (till 2012)
4300MW
Financial Source
Surcharge for Renewable Energy
PV Building Project
Phases
Approved Capacity
Subsidy to Capital (yuan/W)
1st phase, 2009
111 projects, 91MW
BIPV 20, BAPV 15
2nd Phase, 2010
99 projects, 90.2MW
BIPV 17, BAPV 13
3rd Phase, 2011
106 projects, 120MW
BIPV 12 yuan/W
4th Phase, 2012
250MW
BIPV 9, BAPV 7.5
Total (till 2012)
About 550MW
Financial Source
Special Fund for Renewable Energy
Gonden Sun Demonstration
Phases
Approved Capacity
Subsidy to Capital (yuan/W)
1st Phase 2009
98 projects, 201MW
PV Building 14.5, off-grid 20
2nd Phase 2010
50 projects, 272MW
PV Building 11.5, off-grid 16
3rd Phase 2011
140 projects, 690MW
C-Si 9.0, a-Si 8.5
4th Phase 2012
167 projects, 1709MW
PV Building 5.5, off-grid>7.0
Total (till 2012)
2870MW
Financial Source
Special Fund for Renewable Energy
PV Building Project and Golden-Sun Demonstration
Nov. 2012
2830MW
Financial Source
BIPV 7, BAPV 5.5
Special Fund for Renewable Energy
Total Installed and Approved PV by the end of 2012
10550MW
On Dec. 19th, 2012, Premier Wen Jiabao chaired
the meeting of State Council to approve 5
approaches to support solar PV:
(1) To push forward shakeout and recombination
of PV industry by market force (to overcome
the problem of over-capacity in PV industry in
China);
(2) Government PV market development plan
should be agreed with the plan of Grid Company
(to avoid the problem of delay of grid-connection
and cut-off PV power plants from grid for
safety);
36 China Renewable Energy
(3) Expanding domestic PV market and focus on
distributed PV (to change the situation of highly
dependent on foreign market and encourage
distributed PV instead of LS-PV );
(4) To set up solar resources based Feed-in
Tariffs of PV and to stop capital subsidy and
move to performance based tariff subsidy
(originally, only one PV FIT for whole China
and capital subsidy for PV Building project and
Golden-Sun Demo.);
(5) To follow the market mechanisms, reduce
government interfere and prohibit local
Industry Insight
protections (to setup health market for PV in China).
kWh will be provided in addition;
To response the strategy of State Council, in March, 2013,
the draft for comments of Feed-in Tariff (FIT) of PV based
on regional solar resources and the draft subsidy policy for
distribution PV were issued by NDRC. The main issues of
the policy are as follows:
(4) The contract period is 20 years.
Table 1-2 The Draft Version of PV FIT and Subsidy for
Distribution PV
Classification
of Solar
Resources
(1) 4 levels of FIT based on solar resources: 0.75, 0.85, 0.95,
1.0 Yuan/kWh;
(2) For self consumed PV electricity: 0.35 Yuan/kWh of
subsidy will be provided;
(3) The excess PV electricity feed-back to grid will be
purchased by grid company and the subsidy of 0.35 Yuan/
LS-PV
Distributed PV
FIT
Real Income for Self- Subsidy for
onsumed PV
Feed to Grid
(Yuan/kWh)
I
0.75
II
0.85
III
0.95
VI
1
(Yuan/kWh)
(Yuan/kWh)
Retail grid price
+ 0.35
Whole sell
price + 0.35
2. National Plan for PV till 2020
In 2012, National Energy Administration (NEA) released the 12th 5-Year Plan (2011-2015) for Solar Power Generation. The
updated target of cumulative solar power installation for 2015 and 2020is listed bellow:
3. Research and Development (R&D)
Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the government unit to be in charge of R&D of PV. Average annual investment
for R&D from MOST is about 500 million Yuan and the supported fields cover all manufacture chain: poly-Si, wafer, solar
cells, PV modules, thin-film technology, CPV, energy storage, BOS components and system engineering.
Table 2-1 Government Target for Solar Power (2015, 2020)
Fig. 2-1 Solar Power Target and Annual Progress Forecast
Targets for Cumulative Installation of Solar Power (GW)
2015
2020
120.00
Rural Electrification
0.102
3.0
10.0
100.00
Communication and
Industry
0.058
1.0
4.0
PV Buildings
2.390
LS-PV and
Others
PV products
0.058
Large Scale PV (LS-PV)
Total
Share of Distributed PV (%)
15.0
1.0
PV Ins.(GW )
Distributed
PV
Annual Ins. (GW)
2012
Market Sectors
42.0
4.0
15.0
40.0
7.0
35.0
100.0
36.4
54.3
100.00
85.00
80.00
71.00
59.00
60.00
47.00
35.00
40.00
20.00
4.392
Cumulative (GW)
0.00
3.50
7.00
23.00
13.00 10.00 12.00
2.70
3.50
6.00
2011
2012
2013
2014
12.00
2015
2016
12.00
12.00
2017
2018
15.00
14.00
2019
2020
Year
56.0
Table 2-2 Solar Power Target and Annual Progress Forecast
Year
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Annual Inst.(GW)
2.7
3.5
6.0
10.0
12.0
12.0
12.0
12.0
14.0
15.0
Cumuli. Inst. (GW)
3.5
7.0
13.0
23.0
35.0
47.0
59.0
71.0
85.0
100.0
China Renewable Energy 37
Industry Insight
Fig.3-1 Hydro-PV Micro-Grid Demonstration Project in Qinghai Province
Table 3-1 Current R&D Progress in PV
R&D at both Laboratory level and Industry Level
Poly-Silicon Industry Level
BOS and PV Systems
Hydrogen Reduction
60kWh/kg
Total Capacity
3GW/Year
Total Power Consumption
120kWh/kg
Types
Off-grid, centralized, string
inverter, microinverter
By-producs Recycling
100%
Power Range
100W-1MW
Capacity/Factory
1000-60000 Ton/Year
Lead-Acid
Industrialized
Total Capacity
100000 Ton/Year
Lithium Battery
Industrialized
Cost
15-20 USD/kg
Vanadium Redox Battery
Industrialized
Na-S Battery
No
Flywheel
No
Inverters
Efficiency of solar Cells
Energy Storage
PV Cells
Laboratory (%)
Industry (%)
Mono-Si
20.40
19.0
Super-Capacitor
Industrialized
Poly-Si
18.00
17.0
Pumped Storage
Industrialized
D-Junction a-Si
9.20
8.0
Compressed Air Storage
No
u-Si/a-Si M-Junction
11.80
10.0
Off-grid PV
Mature
GaAs
29.25
No
LS-PV
Mature
CIGS
14.30
12.0
PV Buildings
Mature
CdTe
13.38
11.0
Sun Trackers
Mature
DSC
7.40
No
Micro-Grid
Demonstration
HIT
17.27
No
PV Products
Mature
Back-Contact
No
No
Monitoring Sys.
Mature
PV Systems
4. PV Industry Development
China has been the largest producer of PV modules in the world since 2007. In 2012, total PV module produced is about
23GW, little bit higher than 2011 (21GW). Even though, China is the largest producer in poly-Si in the world, but still needs to
import at least 80,000 Ton from other countries, shared about 55%. The situation of PV industry in China is shown bellow:
Table 4-1. Poly-Silicon Production in 2012
Country
US
EU
Japan
Korea
China
Other
Total
Production (Ton)
60000
50000
13000
45000
65000
7000
240000
38 China Renewable Energy
Industry Insight
Table 4-2 Domestic Production of Poly-Si and Share of Imported Poly-Si
Year
2006
2007
2008
2009
2009
2011
2012
Production (Ton)
300
1100
4729
20357
45000
85000
65000
Demand (Ton)
4000
10000
25000
40000
89000
145000
145000
Shortage (Ton)
3700
8900
20271
19643
44000
60000
80000
Share of Import (%)
92.5
89
81.1
49.1
49.4
41.4
55.2
Table 4-3 PV Module Production in China (2011, 2012)
No.
Company
2011
2012
1
Yingli Green Energy
1684
2359
2
Trina Solar
1510
1674
3
Suntech Power
2010
1665
4
Canadian Solar
1386
1620
5
JA Solar
820
985
6
Jinko Solar
792
924
7
Hareon Solar
855
900
8
Hanwha SolarOne
938
872
9
LDK(11')Renesolar(12')
880
748
10
Tianwei New Energy
964
700
11
Others
9161
10553
21000
23000
Total
5. PV Market Development
In 2012, total domestic PV installation is about
3.5GW, much less than original expectation (4.5
- 5.0 GW) due to the delay of subsidy payment
and difficult in grid connection. The PV
installation in China is listed bellow:
In 2012, the management duty of RE surcharge
was moved from Grid Co. to Ministry of Finance
(MOF) and MOF will fill the gap of subsidy
in case the RE surcharge is not enough. In this
case, the problem of shortage of RE surcharge
and the delay of payment will be never happened
anymore.
Another barrier is grid connection, especially
for LS-PV, due to poor locally load consumption
and poor grid transmission ability. In 2012, even
Table 5-1 Domestic PV Installation by Sectors 2012
2012 Domestic PV Market by Sectors
No.
Market Sector
Annu. Ins.
Share
Cumm. Ins.
Share
(MWp)
(%)
(MWp)
(%)
1
Rural Electrification
20
0.57
102.5
1.5
2
Comm.& Indus.
10
0.29
58.0
0.8
3
PV Products
10
0.29
57.5
0.8
4
Building PV
1460
41.71
2390.0
34.1
5
Ground Mounted LS-PV
2000
57.14
4392.0
62.7
3500
100.00
7000.0
100.0
Total
Table 5-2 Price Reduction of PV During Last 6 Years
Year
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Cumulative Installation (GWp)
0.10
0.14
0.30
0.80
3.30
7.00
Module Price (Yuan/Wp)
36.0
30.0
19.0
13.0
9.0
4.5
System Price (Yuan/Wp)
60.0
50.0
35.0
25.0
17.5
10.0
Reasonable Tariff of PV (Yuan/kWh)
3.20
3.00
2.50
2.00
1.15
1.00
China Renewable Energy 39
Industry Insight
though the total installed capacity of LS-PV is 2GW, still
about 800MW are waiting for grid-connection.
During last 6 years the cost of PV has been reduced sharply,
and people believe that PV will reach grid parity at user
side or peak power by the year of 2015 and reach to grid
parity at generation side by the year of 2020.
It is expected that in 2013, domestic PV installation in
China will be 5-8GW.
6. PV Roles Today and Future Forecast
Today, PV is not the main role in power supply in China.
The situation of power supply in 2012 is listed in the
following Table.
The PV installation target for the year 2020, 2030 and 2050
is as bellow:
And the role of PV in power supply by the year 2050 is
shown in Table 6-3:
Table 6-1 Power Supply in China in 2012
2012
Type
Inst. Cap.
Generation
Share of Capacity
Share of Generation
GW
TWh
%
%
Hydro
248.90
821.37
21.56
18.03
Wind
60.83
121.66
5.27
2.67
PV
7.00
9.80
0.61
0.22
Biomass Power
6.00
24.00
0.52
0.53
Nuclear
12.57
94.28
1.09
2.07
Subtotal
335.30
1071.11
29.04
23.51
Coal
758.11
3259.87
65.67
71.55
Gas
38.27
133.95
3.31
2.94
Others
22.79
91.16
1.97
2.00
Subtotal
819.17
3484.98
70.96
76.49
Total
100.00
100.00
1154.47
4556.09
Non-fossil Power %
29.04
23.51
Renewable Power %
27.95
21.44
Solar PV %
0.61
0.22
Table 6-2 PV Market Forecast for the year 2020, 2030 and 2050
Year
2012
2020
2030
2050
Basic Target (GW)
7.00
100.0
300.0
1000.0
High Target (GW)
7.00
200.0
600.0
2000.0
The high target require high efforts on Grid-strengthen and storage tech.
Table 6-3 PV Role in Power Supply in China by 2050
Power Source
Power Capacity GW) Annual Equ. Working Hours (Hrs/Year) Production (TWh) Share of Capacity (%) Share of Production(%)
Hydro Power
400
3300
1320
10.22
11.00
Wind Power
1000
2000
2000
25.56
16.66
PV
1000
1400
1400
25.56
11.67
Nuclear
300
7500
2250
7.67
18.75
Biomass Power
200
4000
800
5.11
6.67
Gas Power
150
3500
525
3.83
4.37
Coal Fire Power
862
4300
3707
22.03
30.88
Total
3912
12001.6
100.00
100.00
40 China Renewable Energy
Industry Insight
Progress and Challenge of New
Energy Demonstration City
Hu Runqing, CNREC
1 Background
City is the major area of energy consumption and the major area for social and economical activities, at
the same times, most final energy consumptions are also concentrated in city. According to IEA data,
city energy consumption account for 60% of the global energy consumption, building and industry
sector account for 60% total energy consumption of the city, traffic for 30%. The energy usage per
capita in urban area is twice as that in rural, urban energy consumption per capita is about 3.5 times as
rural population, the increase trend in city population need more energy. It’s necessary to strength the
energy saving and reduce energy consumption, support new and renewable energy development for
social and economic development and achievement of the energy consumption control.
City energy supply heavily relies on fossil fuel. Energy demands include electricity, heating and fuel.
Utilization field cover industry, building and transportation. Pollutant caused by coal in urban air
pollution in China, it is estimated that 70% of the dust emission, 90% of sulphur dioxide emission, 67%
of nitrogen oxide emission and 70% carbon dioxide emission are caused by coal. The utilization of
renewable energy can substitute for fossil energy and reduces the environmental pollution from energy
consumption.
China Renewable Energy 41
Industry Insight
New energy can play important roles on
substitution for fossil energy in cities. City
development takes many chances for renewable
energy in urban region. But, the city energy
system, including energy resource, production
facility, supply network and consumption model
mainly rely on the fossil fuel. New energy has
characteristic of sustainable use, and nature of
environmental protection, however, compare
with fossil fuel, there are some consistency
disadvantage in perspective of pipeline,
construction standard and infrastructure
construction. So the promotion of renewable
energy utilization need more support from
government policy.
The purpose of New Energy Demonstration
City is to promote the substitution of renewable
energy in urban. Chinese government already
establishes some policy mechanism for
renewable energy, e.g. FIT, subsidiary, fiscal
incentive. Most of these policies encourage
manufacture side, however, there are no support
for consumer side.
2 Working concept
The main objective of the New energy city are
taking full advantage of new energy in city area,
including solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and
others , in order that higher rate of renewable
energy in energy consumption or more utilization
in city will be reached.
There will be 100 New Energy Demonstration
Cities and 1000 New Energy Demonstration
Zone by 2015 according to China Renewable
Energy Development Twelve-Five Year Plan.
The New Energy City’s target is to increasing
the new energy utilization rate, reduce fossil
fuel consumption, promote renewable energy
development energy saving and mitigation goal.
New Energy City is one of important activity in
China energy development strategy.
New Energy Demonstration city guiding
ideology are: fully implement the scientific
42 China Renewable Energy
concept of development, to optimize energy
structure, the establishment of modern
energy system as target, in accordance with
clean efficient , complementary, distribution
utilization, integrated and coordinated principle
, actively explore new energy technology
utilization in electricity, heating and building
saving in urban, increase the rate of new energy
in energy consumption, strength the sustainable
development in city area.
The activities of New Energy Demonstration
Construction are to promote new energy
technology improvement and application, and
establish new management system and policy
mechanism in cities. The activities will focus
on solar thermal, solar PV, wind, biomass fuel,
municipal waste utilization, geothermal, surface
water utilization, new energy car and so on.
The New Energy Demonstration City application
body can be: cities in county level (excluded
Green County). Vice provincial level large city
could chose one region with great potential
of renewable energy utilization to apply for
New Energy Demonstration Zone. Provincial
government is responsible for review the
applications.
3 General condition and
assessment criteria
1) General Condition
The city has right to apply for national New
Energy Demonstration City construction if the
city meet two following requirements, 1) reach
the general conditions in energy conservation,
environment, pollution, 2) rate of new energy in
energy consumption is higher than 3% , or new
energy consumption is more than 10 thousand
tce.
2) Assessment criteria
New energy demonstration city assessment
criteria include three kind criteria, total new
energy utilization amount, technology utilization
level, management and supportive mechanism.
Industry Insight
These criteria evaluate the target of city in 2015.
and criteria development.
•
New energy utilization: more than 6% of
the new energy consumption in energy
consumption.
•
Technology utilization level: Classification
criteria of each technology utilization level
are set, including solar thermal, PV, wind,
biomass, geothermal and other. At least two
type of technology should meet the request.
•
Management and incentive mechanism:
including local support policy, public service
platform, support facility and promotion.
NEA officially promulgated the inception of
new energy demonstration city work on 25th
May 2012, and also the inception of new energy
demonstration city and demonstration industrial
zone application work. The official document
clearly state the guiding and working structure of
New Energy Demonstration City, the requirement
and assessment criteria of application of the
New Energy City. New Energy Demonstration
City Planning need to get approval from local
Provincial Energy Administration and then will
be submitted to NEA. NEA will organize an
expert team to review city’s planning and select
qualified cities.
4 Progress
NEA already approved that three cities,
Tulufan city in Xinjiang, Dezhou city in
Shandong, Dunhuang city in Gansu, began their
constructions on New Energy City before NEA
formal launched New Energy Demonstration
City. NEA hopes that these three cities’
experience will be helpful for the concept design
NEA modified management mechanism on
Feb 201, give the administration authority to
provincial government. NEA is responsible
for formation of assessment criteria, planning
guiding, evaluation and acceptance management.
Provincial energy department is responsible
for city initial assessment, and then make
Table 1 New Energy City Assessment Criteria
Assessment index
1.
1.1 General capacity
1.2 New energy utilization
2. Assessment criteria
2.1 Total utilization
2.2 Technology criteria
1) Solar thermal
2) Solar PV
3)Distributed wind
4) Biomass
5) Geothermal
6) Others
3.Management and incentive
mechanism
Assessment Requirement
General condition
Cutting tasks base on the national, provincial and municipal government’s pollutant.
Energy consumption in the industrial added value above the designated size is less than the
provincial average, or " Eleventh-Five " Above - scale units during the fall was greater than the
provincial average energy consumption of added value declines
New architecture must meet the energy building saving requirement
General City environment comprehensive assessment should not lower than average grade in
local province.
Must meet one of two:
New energy consumption account for higher than 3% of energy consumption
New energy annual utilization is higher than 10 thousand tce
New energy consumption account for higher than 6% of energy consumption
Must meet one of two:
Accumulative solar heat collector ≥1 million m2
Solar heat collector per capita≥0.36 m2
Total installed capacity≥20MW
Total capacity ≥100MW
Total utilization amount≥100 thousand tce
Scientific and reasonable biomass, sludge utilization program
large scale geothermal heating, building area of heat pump system ≥3 million m2
Other new energy utilization ≥50 thousand tce
Local government support
Public service platform
Support facility
Promotion
China Renewable Energy 43
Industry Insight
the short list of applicant. Municipal energy
authority is responsible for project organization
and implementation. NEA also divided 100
demonstration cities quota into each province.
NEA also encouraged the qualified city
or interested city to apply for new energy
demonstration zone.
NEA already received application and their new
energy demonstration city development planning
from more than 50 cities and 6 industrial zones
so far and conducted the expert evaluation for 12
cities.
5 Challenge
City development concept need be
changed
There are a lot of cities put forward “ New
Energy City “ development goal in recent
year, however, most of them only focus on the
new energy manufacture and large scale new
energy plant in order to attract new investment
and to increase Local GDP. New energy city
concentrates on green energy consumption in
local area and alternate fossil energy and scale
up the new energy utilization in new energy city.
How to select appropriate technology
and application mechanism?
There are a lot of differences for each new
energy technology in their technology mature,
economy, and a lot of difference of their
resources and application conditions in different
regions. How to select appropriate technology
and application mechanism is a big challenge
for demonstration cities and local developers.
Especially new complementary system’s
applications are big challenge. In recent year, the
complementary system, including new energy/
new energy system and new energy/fossil energy
system, developed very quickly. These systems
have improved efficiency and stability of
renewable energy system, and can meet the high
level energy demand in the city. There are great
potential exist, however the developer capacity
is very weak now.
44 China Renewable Energy
Planning and implementation
How to make applicable action plan in New
Energy Demonstration City is also a great
challenge. Some of cities set up a big target and
want to develop all kinds of new energy which
is not suitable for local conditions. In addition,
there are a few of city’s planning being divorced
from reality; they set up their big target just
because the criteria asked. It’s quite difficult to
achieve goal in current policy status.
Data collection and verification
There are some shortage about basic data
source involve energy consumption, new energy
production and consumption in city and in region
level. The data comes from different resource
and it’s difficult to coordinate these data. In the
official statistical book, the data bout electricity
is easy to get, but the data about heating and fuel
are more difficult to check. No official statistical
method and shortage of detailed basic data
sources, assessment criteria inspection would be
more difficult in real work.
No incentive policy support.
Central government haven’t release any incentive
policy for new energy demonstration city, local
government really expect the promulgation
about support policy form central government.
Incentive policy is still under research and
discussion currently. The policy framework
and detail measures are not clear now. The
following issues are considered during the policy
research: 1) incentive policy will not suitable
for those projects which have got the incentive
policy already, for example renewable energy
electricity with FIT; 2) incentive policy need
to applicable in real work; 3) encourage local
government and stakeholder’s initiative. The
inventive policy may be considered include:
1) new energy consumption are not in the list
of energy consumption control; 2) the projects
in new energy demonstration city will have a
priority to get project approval; 3)subsidy for
some technology investment; 4)subsidy for new
energy consumption.
Industry Insight
Challenges and
Suggestions for the development
of China’s Wind Power Industry
Qin Haiyan, Secretary General of Chinese Wind Energy Association
After rapid development for several years, the development of Chinese
wind power industry slowed down obviously in recent 2 years. At the
same time, more problems began to emerge in the industry. Problems
such as the huge loss caused by wind power curtailment, disorder of
equipment competition, lack of independent innovation and block of
international market cannot be ignored any more.
China Renewable Energy 45
Industry Insight
1.Status of Wind Power Industry
in China
Since Renewable Energy Law of People's
Republic of China was implemented officially in
2005, with the help of policy and market, wind
power industry in China has developed rapidly.
The newly installed capacity doubled the original
capacity from 2005 to 2010, and the accumulated
installed capacity kept the first in the world
from 2010-2012. In 2012, China invested 67.7
billion USD to renewable energy, 40% of which
was invested to wind power, which is 27.2
billion USD. The newly installed capacity in
2012 was 12.96 GW, the accumulated installed
capacity was 75.32 GW, and the accumulated
grid-integrated capacity reached 62.3 GW. The
generation of wind power reached 100.4 TWh,
wind power took place of nuclear to be the third
electricity resource in China.
Chinese wind power has made outstanding
achievements during just a few years. An
industrial system which contains wind farm
development, equipment manufacture,
technology research, testing & certification,
and related services has already been formed.
With the drive of market, the scale of wind
power enterprises in China expanded rapidly
and wind power equipment manufacturing
technologies were strengthened clearly. Large
scale WTGS technology and core technology
of key components took breakthrough. Great
progress was made in innovation on specific
WTGS for specific climate characteristic and
lots of kind of WTGS which are suitable for
sophisticated environment characteristic, such as
cold temperature, offshore, typhoon, continental
plateau and low wind speed were designed and
produced. Due to the large scale of development,
the construction cost of wind power is controlled
effectively, and cost gap between wind power
and conventional power is further narrowed. The
competitive advantage of market is cultivated.
In the meantime, with the development of whole
industry, a group of highly educated, high level
and international technical personnel has initially
formed. They contributed intelligent support
46 China Renewable Energy
to the sustainable development of wind power.
Now, the annual output value of wind power
industry in China reaches 100 billion. And more
than 300,000 jobs are created by wind power
directly and indirectly. More than 86 million
tons of carbon dioxide emission was reduced.
The rapid development of Chinese wind power
contributed a lot to slowing global warming,
reducing pollution emission, adjusting energy
structure and promoting employment.
After rapid development for several years, the
development of Chinese wind power industry
slowed down obviously in recent 2 years. In
2011, the newly installed capacity of wind
power began to grow negatively, dropped
6.9% compared to 2010. The newly installed
capacity of 2012 dropped 26.5% compared to
that of 2011. At the same time, more problems
began to emerge in the industry. Problems
such as the huge loss caused by wind power
curtailment, disorder of equipment competition,
lack of independent innovation and block of
international market cannot be ignored any more.
2. Main challenges and suggestions
2.1 Taking different measures to solve
the wind power curtailment
Wind power generation loss caused by grid
dispatching has already become the largest
obstruction of the healthy and sustainable
development of Chinese wind power industry.
According to the statistic of National Energy
Administration (NEA), PRC, in 2012, about
20 TWh wind power generation was lost due
to restriction, which is about 2 times of that in
2011. And the generation loss converted into
more than 6,500,000 tons of standard coal. The
direct loss of electricity charge amounted to 10
billion Yuan.
Recently, the NEA released a series of policies
to speed up wind power grid integration
and consumption to guide the wind power
development in different regions of China.
But from the perspective of whole industry, to
Industry Insight
improve the efficiency of wind power exploration
and eliminate wind power curtailment, we
should solve this problem from different levels.
First of all, we should improve the local wind
power consumption ability. Through the marketoriented transform of electricity system, energysaving dispatch management and full purchase
of renewable energy generation would be
fully carried out. Currently, the integration of
more wind power into the grid is an economic
problem, not a technical problem, key of which
is how to coordinate interest of different parties.
Secondly, we should strengthen the transport
capacity of cross the districts and expand wind
power consumption regions to different districts.
Thirdly, at the same time of constructing flexible
peak power pack, we should improve the
initiatives of conventional power to participate in
power peaking, make the existing thermal power
generation participate in power peaking through
the establishment of auxiliary service market
and benefit compensation mechanism. Lastly,
we should plan and coordinate the construction
of grid, wind power and other generation. Treat
wind power as an important power source at
present and leading power source in the future.
driven force to improve technology and quality
of wind power equipments, which is not good for
the long term development of the enterprises.
2.2 Guiding the healthy development of
wind power equipment market
2.3 Improving the system construction
to promote standard development of
industry
As wind power capacity in China is expanding,
the competition among manufactures is fiercer
and fiercer; the irrational price competition
among enterprises is more and more normal.
On one hand, the long term price competition
in equipment market makes the manufactures
sacrifice quality for the lower price, which
makes the quality of products terrible. More
importantly, the low price leads to the profit of
manufactures decrease by a large margin, which
affects the technical input of manufactures and
restricts progress of technology directly. On
the other hand, the local governments trade the
resource for the industry, which forces the wind
farm developers to purchase the WTGS produced
by local manufactures. And in this unfair
competition environment, some less efficient
manufactures survives. They don’t have any
Faced with these problems, the government
should play a leading role to improve the
mechanism of market. Improper administrative
interventions should be completely eradicated to
create a free, equal and fair market environment.
First of all, the government should use the
wind power industry monitoring and evaluation
system to disclosure the quality of wind power
equipment regularly, to provide a transparent
trade environment for supply and requisitioning
parties. Secondly, the tenders of wind power
should change the present evaluation principlesthe lower, the better. Not only price but also the
quality, usability & reliability of product and
after-sale service should be taken into account
when purchasing equipments. Moreover, the
manufactures should focus on improving quality
and building after-sale service system to seize
the market; pay more attention on technology
innovation, personnel storage and manufacture
improvement to enhance market competitiveness
comprehensively.
Since 2009, statistic shows that there are more
than 30 grave accidents nationwide. More than
30 WTGS collapsed or were burned. The loss
was huge and caused more than 10 casualties.
The NEA has released investigation on the
operation status of wind power equipment since
2010. It is basically defined that the defective
of wind farm safe operation and management
system is the main reason of grave accidents.
Until now, China still does not build consummate
wind farm operation and management system.
Though wind power enterprises formulate
operation, examination and secure standards by
other industries for reference, they are neither
applicable nor operable. Meanwhile, the carrying
out of standards is not supervised effectively,
illegal operations often occur. The wind power
China Renewable Energy 47
Industry Insight
personnel are lack of professional skills and work
experiences, the quality management messes,
it is really hard to take effective measures to
handle the accident effectively and timely when
it occurs, which makes the accident much worse.
To solve the problem of frequent accident, first
of all, we suggest consummate wind power
accident and breakdown reporting system, build
the national wind power equipment breakdown
and accident platform to collect wind power
equipment accident and breakdown messages,
and make these messages known to the public.
Secondly, we suggest consummate the wind
power standard system. As there are many
gaps in China’s wind power standard system at
present, we suggest formulate related standards,
carry out testing and certification according to
these standards to solve the problems of WTGS
quality and accidents. Moreover, China should
build wind farm safe operation and management
system covering wind farm construction,
debugging and operation. And standards on
system evaluation and certification should
be formulated to push forward wind farms
to improve their operation and management.
Meanwhile, China should strengthen
qualification management of wind power
industry, Wind farm construction; operation and
maintenance personnel should be trained and
examined before induction.
2.4 Strengthening international
cooperation to achieve win-win of
global market
Compared to leading countries with advanced
wind technology, wind power development in
China is still backward as a whole. We still have
not mastered the core technology of WTGS yet,
the key design ability of core components lacks,
the related public service platform has not been
built up yet and the level of standards, testing
and certification still needs to be improved. As
a big country of wind power manufacturing,
if Chinese enterprises would like to compete
and progress with the leading enterprises in
the international market, we should enhance
48 China Renewable Energy
international cooperation and strive to improve
the level to realize the win-win of global market.
China should use global technology resource to
take part in international technology development
plan, so as to cooperate with foreign enterprises
to carry out advanced technology and common
technology research. Gearing chain and
component test platform in countries with
advanced wind power technologies plays an
important role in technology improvement and
industrialization, to name a few, Risø National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, US National
R e n e w a b l e E n e rg y L a b o r a t o r y, G e r m a n
Wind Energy Institute and Spanish National
Renewable Energy Center. And China should
enhance cooperation with these agencies to
build national wind power common technology
platform, such as national wind testing center,
certification center, information center and
training center. At the same time, China should
take involved in formulating international
wind power technology standards; enhance
international communication and cooperation
on WTGS testing and certification to promote
the adoption of WTGS testing and certification
between China and foreigner countries.
Industry Insight
Renewable energy has always been the focus of
China-U.S. energy cooperation. China learned
experience of policies, market and industrial
management which aimed to support the
development of renewable energy from USA. At
the same time, many American enterprises set
manufacturing and operating companies in China,
which not only promotes the development of
wind power development in China, but also gains
profits from the continuous increase of renewable
energy market in China. In 2009, the ‘U.S.-China
Renewable Energy Partnership memorandum’
was authorized in Beijing by governments of
U.S. and China. In this framework, ‘U.S.-China
Renewable Energy Industry Forum’ was held in
these 2 countries alternately once a year. With
the help of this platform, U.S. and China share
successful experience of renewable energy
development, and communicate on various
problems in the field of renewable energy fully,
which plays a positive role in promoting the
healthy & sustainable development of U.S.-China
renewable energy.
3. The prospect of wind power
industry in China
After 2 years negative development, the
government and industry have to re-examine
problems and bottlenecks restricted wind power
development. The government departments
in charge have released a series of policies to
support and encourage the development of wind
power, which cover industry development plan,
technology research, industry management,
economy encouragement and so on. And they
ensure the industrial transforming and updating
by examining and approving wind power
projects strictly, strengthen management of
grid-integrated wind farms, push on the grid
construction and reforming, encourage technical
research and innovation, consummate renewable
energy subsidy regulations. At the same time,
different enterprises in the wind power industrial
chain take practical measures to build ability,
diminish excess capacity, expand business mode,
and improve innovation ability to transform
smoothly.
As the air pollution is more and more serious
recently, developing renewable energy, as
well as wind power has become an irresistible
trend. In June, 2012, Chinese government
released 12th Five-Year Plan for Renewable
Energy Development and 12th Five-Year Plan
for Wind Power Industry Development. It is
written in these development plans that in 2015,
the accumulated grid-integration capacity of
wind power will be 100GW (5GW offshore),
and yearly electricity generation will be 190
TWh, which will account for more than 3%
of the whole generation. The complete wind
power industry with international competition
will form basically. These plans show the
government’s determination to accelerate wind
power development, provide good development
prospect for investors, and push on wind power
to play a much more important role in adjusting
energy structure and dealing with climate change.
And the large market provides fundament for
Chinese wind power industry to transform to be
strategic industry with international competition.
In the future, as the policy improves and perfects,
the development problem solves gradually,
Chinese wind power industry will usher in a new
development opportunity for sure.
China Renewable Energy 49
Industry Insight
The prospect of China PV market
development
Yang Shaonan, CNREC
The situation that key technologies and major markets rely on foreign countries is the most characteristic
of Chinese PV industry. According to the data from China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance (CPIA), the
amount of module produced in 2012 was 23GW in China, up 14% year-over-year. China production
capacity for PV module was in the first place, which accounted for 60% of total volume and about 85%
of modules were exported to foreign countries in 2012. Due to trade disputes between China and Europe
and other countries, the international market of China PV modules is facing severe challenges. Seeking
the way of products creation, promoting industry upgrade, enlarging domestic market is the direction of
China PV industry development.
The goals of domestic PV market
The initial target of installed capacity was set to achieve 5 GW at the end of 1015. This target was
adjusted to 10 GW in 2011. The 12th Five-year Plan for Solar Power Development, which was issued
by the National Energy Administration in 2012, mentioned that China's solar power installed capacity
would reach 21 GW at the end of 2015. The target includes 20 GW in PV and 1 GW in concentrating
solar thermal power (CSP). The target was improved to 35GW at the beginning of 2013. This was the
third adjusted target for Chinese for solar power development plan in 2015. The recent adjustment has
indicated the determination of the government to promote domestic PV market.
The tendency of domestic PV market
Cumulative installed capacity of PV market in China was only 0.38 GW in 2010. It increased to 3 GW
in 2011, and about to 6.5GW in 2012 which contained 4.2 GW large-scale photovoltaic power stations
and 2.3 GW distributed application. Added capacity was about 3.5 GW in 2012 that included 1.8 GW in
large-scale photovoltaic power stations and 1.7GW in distributed application.
50 China Renewable Energy
Industry Insight
From the data of cumulative installed capacity,
large-scale PV power station is still the major
way to promote the development of China PV
market, which accounted for two-thirds of the
national total installed capacity. However, form
the data of added installed capacity, distributed
application and large-scale photovoltaic power
stations had roughly the same market share in
2012 in domestic market. It reflected the fast
development trendy for distributed utilization in
China PV market.
The challenges of domestic PV
industry
Overcapacity is one of the main challenges for
current PV industry in China. The productivity
for solar module was over 40GW in China in
2011, but only 30GW was required in the global
at the same period. That was much more than
global market demand. It was predicated that
21GW of modules would be produced in 2013.
The global market demand would be 33GW in
this year. The challenge of overcapacity still
exists. As a result of overcapacity and the effects
form global economic downturn, the price of
PV products has dropped dramatically. The
competition is more competitive in PV industry
and some enterprises have faced shutdown or
even bankruptcy.
On the other hand, with rapid increase of
production level and technology progress, the
product cost has been dropped quickly. PV
generation has entered a stage of large-scale
application in China, which provides a great
support to expand domestic market. However,
with the market expanding, there are other
challenges that have to be faced, such as how to
plan power supply and power grid construction,
how to perfect subsidy mechanism, how to solve
the problem of insufficient subsidies and how to
ensure reasonable market expend pace.
To enact policies and measures
The Chinese government takes PV industry
and market very seriously. A series of policies
and measures have been enacted to promote the
development for PV industry. These policies and
measures would play a significant role to expand
domestic market, to promote industry upgrade
and to help entrepreneurs make correct decisions
according to future market development.
State Council executive meetings were hold in
2012 and 2013 respectively to discuss measures
that can promote PV industry development. The
former meeting was chaired by Premier Wen
Jiabao in 2012. There are five measures were
proposed, which includes to enact benchmark
price for solar power stations located in different
areas, to strictly control polycrystalline silicon
and PV cells as well as modules production lines
which is only used to expend productivity, to
reduce government intervention and to prohibit
regional protectionism.
Premier Li Keqiang chaired another State Council
executive meeting in June 2013 to propose 6
measures to support the development of PV
industry. 1. To strengthen planning and industrial
policies guidance, to promote the reasonable
layout and to focus on the development of
distributed PV applications. 2. Power grid
enterprises should ensure that grid and PV power
generation project are constructed synchronously,
give priority for PV power generation and
purchase electricity generated by PV in full
amount. 3. To perfect PV electricity price support
policy, to enact benchmark price for solar power
stations located in different areas, to enlarge
renewable energy fund, to guarantee electricity
subsidy used for distributed application can
be in place in time. 4. To encourage financial
institutions take measures to reduce financing
difficulties for PV manufacturing enterprises. 5.
To support researches and development for key
materials and equipment technology, to achieve
industrialization and to enact PV industrial
standards. 6. To encourage increase enterprise
competitiveness and to limit overcapacity.
In order to encourage the development of
distributed PV generation, National Energy
Administration issued the notification about
China Renewable Energy 51
Industry Insight
Table1 Feed-in tariffs in different areas and subsidy for distributed PV system
Large-scale PVpower station
Price (yuan/kWh) Area
Level I
0.75
Qinghai (Haixi, Haibei, Luoguo, Yushu)
Level II
0.85
Xinjiang, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia , Qinghai (Xining, Haidong,Hainan,
huangnan), Gansu (Wuwei, Zhangye Jiayuguan, Jiuquan,dunhuang,
jinchang) Sichuan(A ba, Ganzi), Yunnan(Lijiang Diqing )
Level III
0.95
Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei (Chengde,
Zhangjiakou, Tangshan Qinhuangdao) , Shanxi (Datong,Shuozhou,
Xinzhou) Shanxi(yan 'an Yunlin), Yunnan rest area, Gansu rest area
Level IV
1
Other area
The subsidies for distributed PV system is 0.35yuan/kWh
distributed PV generation demonstration
zone application in September 2012. The
number of applied demonstration zone in each
province should be no more than 3, and total
installed capacity should be no more than
0.5 GW. Therefore, 15GW distributed PV
application was encouraged in the nationwide.
In order to promote the work, National Energy
Administration requested total 14 provinces and
cities to submit work program of distributed PV
generation demonstration zone in June 2013.
These regions include Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin,
Shenzhen, Ningbo, Qingdao, Dalian, Hebei,
Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong,
Liaoning and Jiangxi.
National Development and Reform Commission
are researching feed-in tariff policy. The
notification about to perfect the PV feed-in tariff
policy draft was enacted to collect opinions
from stakeholders. According to this draft paper,
feed-in tariffs for PV power stations were set
four levels based on local solar resource. The
subsidies for distributed PV system are provided
based on the power they produced. According to
feedback, feed-in tariff that was set in the draft
paper was lower than expectations. National
Development and Reform Commission is
soliciting opinions, the related policy is expected
to be issued recently. With new policy approving,
domestic PV market would be promoted actively.
State Grid supports the grid-connection for
distributed PV system. The document about
52 China Renewable Energy
distributed PV grid-connected service work was
issued by State Grid in November 2012. The
document based on the principle of” support,
welcome and service” to take measures in terms
of planning, technical inspection, connecting,
metering and safe operation to provide grid
service for distributed PV systems which are
used in roof top or BIPV program. Generally
these systems are no more than 6MW and
connected with grid under 10KV. The document
request to simplify the procedure of gridconnection of distributed PV. The whole period
should less than 45days. 5700 times consultation
service was provided and 352 households
distributed PV systems were connected with grid
from the date of document issued to April 2013.
Currently, large-scale PV power plants are
main developmental model in western part of
China, which accounts about two-thirds of total
installed capacity. However, from the policies
that have been issued or would be issued we can
realize that distributed PV systems are getting
more support from the government. Increasing
numbers of PV enterprises gradually consider
turned to invest distributed systems, especially
for systems with thousands KW in public
rooftop. Undoubtedly, Chinese PV market has
great development potential in the future. Related
departments are promoting the development of
market actively. With related policies are been
enacting, Chinese PV market would expand
rapidly.
Industry Insight
Overview: U.S. Renewable Energy
Markets & Policy
American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE)1
This report on United States renewable energy financial policy is the result of extensive research,
outreach, and analysis conducted over the last three years. It identifies federal and state government
policies that could promote efficient private sector capital formation and investment in the renewable
energy industry.
State and federal policies have worked: renewable investment has
grown rapidly:
Private sector investment in the U.S. renewable energy sector has grown significantly in recent years due
in large part to manufacturing and technology cost reductions, state market demand policies, and federal
tax policies. The combination of these factors has contributed to impressive growth for the renewable
energy industry, and this scale in turn has further reduced technology costs. Over the past five years,
more than 35% of all new power generation has come from renewable energy resources, including more
than 49% of all new power generation in 2012– surpassing all other energy sources, including natural
gas. Since 2004, more than $300 billion has been invested in the U.S. clean energy market, including
$35.6 billion in 2012, with a corresponding significant increase in jobs. Renewable energy generation
also enhances energy security by harnessing clean domestic resources to produce more of the energy we
consume here in the United States.
1
This article is compiled by Collin Smith, US-China Program Team Member, American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) for China Renewable
Energy Magazine, REIF 2013 Edition, July 2013. The information in this article primarily comes from the following source: American Council On
Renewable Energy, CalCEF, and Climate Policy Initiative. Strategies to Scale-Up U.S. Renewable Energy Investment. Rep. Washington D.C.: ACORE,
2013.
China Renewable Energy 53
Industry Insight
These policies have translated
into concrete results in
renewable energy’s market
deployment:
Of all new U.S. generation capacity in 2012,
49% came from renewable energy, making
renewable energy the largest source of new
capacity over natural gas and coal. Four states
added more than 1,000 MW in 2012. Texas led
with 1,826 MW, while California came in second
with 1,656 MW. Kansas installed 1,440 MW and
Oklahoma installed 1,127 MW, while Illinois
rounded out the top five with 823 MW.
A record amount of wind energy was installed in
2012, adding 13,124 MW of installed capacity
and accounting for 42% of all new electricity
generating capacity. Solar energy installations
also broke records, with a 76% increase in
photovoltaic solar power installed in 2012 as
compared to 2011. There were 300,000 homes
in the U.S. with solar PV installations as of the
first quarter of 2013, a number reached after
83,000 homes added new solar systems in 2012.
This next year projects an additional 4.3 GW of
new solar power installation, a number that’s a
significant jump over 2012’s results and would
represent a 30% increase year-over-year.2
This success was enabled by
the alignment of federal, state,
and private efforts:
2
The success of policies to date reflects the
application of two important American concepts
core to the progress of our nation: the role
of Federalism to align our national and state
governments behind a common objective, and
the importance of public-private partnerships
to leverage public and private resources. At the
state-level, renewable energy portfolio standards
(RPS) and policies like electricity market design
have established the conditions through which
renewable energy technologies have grown in
recent years. The production and investment
tax credits (PTC and ITC) have been the main
federal policies complementing these important
market structures.
Further scaling up requires
cost-effective policies that can
drive low-cost private
investment:
To further scale up the industry and to maintain
a leadership role in the global clean energy
economy, substantially greater levels of lowercost capital investment will be needed. Our
analysis suggests several principles to guide the
formulation of a strategy to achieve this goal,
based on these important recommendations:
Build on the success of current policy
efforts
The first step to achieving this goal is to
continue to build upon the success of existing
"Deployment: Key Statistics." Energy Fact Check. American Council on Renewable Energy, n.d. Web. 18 July 2013. <http://www.energyfactcheck.
org/energy-issues/deployment/deployment-key-stats/>.
54 China Renewable Energy
Industry Insight
policy efforts. Reinvigorated state RPS policies
and long-term extension of tax credits remain
important. Additional policies, including
Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and Real
Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), successful in
motivating capital formation in other sectors,
should be made applicable to renewable
energy investment. These policies can serve
to encourage even greater levels of lower
cost capital investment. This combination of
complementary, yet evolving federal and state
policy remains essential to the continued scaleup of private low-cost capital investment in the
sector.
Provide a level playing field for
renewable technologies
Existing federal and state policies have also
helped to level the playing field between
renewable and conventional resources. However,
robust policy support is still necessary to
maintain market momentum. A myriad of
federal and state fiscal, regulatory and other
policies serve to support conventional energy
development. Some forms of renewable energy
are cost competitive with traditional sources of
energy generation now and will be even more
so within the next few years. Other renewable
energy and emerging technologies, crucial
to the clean energy transition, will require
support for a longer period of time. During
this transitional period when further scale-up
is pivotal to the reduction of costs, it is crucial
that policy continue to enable this growth. To be
clear, this level of policy support is nothing that
has not previously been provided to the energy
technologies of the past or is currently provided
to incumbent, non-renewable energy industries.
Improve the effectiveness and costeffectiveness of policies to drive lowcost investment
The challenge, in an era of fiscal constraint at
all levels of government, is for the renewable
energy industry to design and advocate for the
most effective and efficient financial incentives
in order to achieve rapid scale, leveraging the
most value possible. The optimal form of this
private finance strategy will result in both the
acceleration of capital commitments to the sector,
and development of broadly-owned investment
assets that provide economic opportunity to a
significant portion of the American population.
Reform regulatory and market design
to encourage renewable investment
In the power sector, regulatory reforms and
improvements in electricity market design, such
as greater use of utility rate-basing renewable
energy investment and the use of value-based
(vs. lowest price) procurement, can also play
an important role in encouraging greater
investment of private capital in renewable
energy. Technology cost reduction and market
attributes, such as scalability and relatively
quick deployment timelines, provide important
incentives for utilities to invest in and deploy
renewable energy generation.
Power market rules play a central role in
governing electricity infrastructure investment
decisions. Reforms to align them with renewable
energy investment are important to encourage
such investment. Many of these policy
techniques are developed and deployed at the
state-level. Therefore, a key supposition in this
analysis is that state-level policy design for RPS
markets will be crucial for industry success.
Renewable energy generation is an increasingly
important part of our nation’s energy security
and economic growth. A mix of federal and state
policy, coupled with electricity market reforms,
is key to driving sufficient private capital
formation and investment. Properly designed
policies can succeed in leveraging existing
and new sources of capital and investor pools.
However, it is critical that decision-makers
continue with the policies that are currently
in place, while they explore new policies and
regulations. This policy certainty will ensure
continued market momentum, while serving as
a bridge to a future of far more private sector
investment in renewable energy.
China Renewable Energy 55