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Wind Energy in China

2021 wind energy numbers

China continues to have the highest wind power capacity in the world. The wind power capacity growth presented a higher rate, and 55,919MW of new wind power capacity was installed, representing a 2.74% increase in growth
from last year. Accumulated capacity increased to 346,666MW. Grid-connected capacity increased to 328,480 MW with the addition of 47,570 MW installed in 2021. The newly added and cumulative grid-integrated wind power capacities, respectively, accounted for 27% and 13.8% of installed power capacities nationwide in 2021.

Wind power remains the third largest generation source in China, following thermal and hydroelectricity sources. The average full-load-hour of wind power was 2,246 hours in 2021, an increase of 149 hours from 2020. Wind-generated electricity totalled 655.6TWh, an increase of 40.5% over the previous year. Wind-generated electricity accounted for 7.9% of the total electricity generation, an increase of 1.7 percentage points over 2020. The average wind curtailment rate was 3%, at the same level as in 2020.

To read more about China’s wind energy sector, read CWEA’s chapter in the IEA Wind TCP Annual Report.

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Megawatt

Total wind power capacity is 346,670 MW.
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Megawatt

Wind power capacity in China increased by 55.919 MW in 2021.
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Terawatt-time

China produces 655.65 TWh from wind energy, which accounts for 7.9% of the country’s electricity consumption.

National Targets

Under the requirements and guidance of the “carbon peak and carbon neutrality” goals, the Fourteenth Five Year Plan released on March 12 put forward raising the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption to about 20%. This includes vigorously increasing the scale of wind and photovoltaic power generation, speeding up the development of distributed energy in the eastern and central regions, and orderly development of offshore wind power, as well as building a number of clean energy bases with multiple and complementary energy sources. Nine clean energy bases, five offshore wind power bases, and several transmission channels will be arranged and improve the utilisation rate of ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission lines.

Further, the development and construction of wind power will be promoted, and grid integration will be speeded up by optimising and integrating the local power plant, grid, and load resources and exploring the development path of building a new type of power system with high integration of power plant, grid, load, and energy storage, supported by advanced technological breakthroughs and system and mechanism innovation. On October 20, NEA issued the Notice on Actively Promoting the Relevant Works of New Energy Power Generation Projects to be Grid-connected and Electricity-generated as much as possible. And pointed out: In the case of continued tight power supply and demand, speeding up the construction and grid-connection of wind power and photovoltaic power projects, increasing clean power supply will not only help ease the tension between power supply and demand but also facilitate to achieve the goal of dual control of energy consumption, and promote low-carbon energy transformation.

Progress & Operational Details

By the end of 2021, China had installed 55.92GW of new wind power capacity (exclusive of Taiwan). This accounted for 55% of the new global wind capacity for the year. The accumulated wind power capacity in China reached 346.67GW, accounting for 41% of wind power capacity worldwide, maintaining the highest wind power capacity in the world. A total of 15,911 new wind turbines were installed in 2021, bringing the national total of operating turbines to 171,166. The average capacity of newly installed wind turbines was above 3.51MW, an increase of 31.7% compared to 2020. The top five provinces with the newest installed capacity were:

  • Jiangsu (6.2 GW).
  • Guangdong (5.4 GW).
  • Inner Mongolia (4.3 GW).
  • Henan (4.2 GW).
  • Gansu (3.8 GW).

Together, these accounted for 42.8% of the new capacity nationwide. The middle, eastern, and southern regions of China account for 55% of new installations. The average weighted full-load-hour of operating wind farms was 2,246 hours, an increase of 149 hours compared to 2020.

In 2021, a total of 5.237 offshore wind turbines were installed. The new installation is about 14.5GW, representing a 277% increase in growth from last year. The cumulative installation exceeded 25GW. Among the newly installed wind turbines, the turbines below 5MW and above 5MW (including 5MW) account for 19.5% and 80.5%, respectively. The new installation is distributed in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Liaoning, Shandong, and Shanghai. The installation in Jiangsu was about 5GW, accounting for 34.4% of the new capacity.

National RDD Priorities and Budget

In 2021, the national RD&D focused on building the multi-energy complementary clean energy bases, including the integration development of wind, solar, hydro, ocean energy, clean coal-fired plants, grid, load, and energy storage projects, nine clean energy bases, five offshore wind power bases and several transmission channels, the new type of wind turbines and key components, and medium voltage, direct current, low-frequency technologies, etc.

2021 is the first year of the “14th Five Year Plan” development. The relevant RD&D actions had made achievements, which were invested by the developers, manufacturers, and research bodies though the national budget has not been released yet.

In 2021, the first 5.5MW floating wind project put into operation, the floating platform called “Fuyao” for a 6.2MW floating wind turbine was off the production line, the 16MW offshore wind turbine passed the concept design assessment by the accredited third party, and the largest onshore wind turbines of 6.25MW were connected to the grid in batches. The longest blade of 102m had finished the static test and fatigue test, which will be applied to the 10MW wind turbines. The offshore wind farm installed 100 wind turbines and firstly used a 400kV VSC-HVDC system that was put into operation in Rudong, Jiangsu. Yangzhou University, NUAA, Gold Wind, MYwind, Chinawindey, Shanghai Electric, and CGC jointly take part in the research on low noise wind turbine technology, including improvement of the wind turbine aerodynamic noise source model, development of PE noise propagation models in complex terrain, research of coupling method of PE model and CFD in complex terrain and so on.

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Member Tongguang Wang

wangtg@cwea.org.cn

Alternate Member Haiyan Qin

iea@cwea.org.cn

Alternate Member Guangping Du

dugp@cgc.org.cn