China Could Be Top Wind Market in 3 Years – Vestas

China could become the world’s top wind power market in three to five years but will grow faster if it reforms its subsidy system, executives of major wind turbine maker Vestas said on Friday.

Currently the world’s number two consumer of oil and top producer of coal, Beijing is keen to boost the amount of energy it gets from renewable sources to clean its skies and improve energy security.
But it has chosen to subsidise wind power through a bidding system that analysts and industry figures say pushes prices too low to fuel the rapid development China could enjoy.

The current system asks firms to submit bids stating how much they would charge for wind power from potential sites. Instead many would like to see a feed-in tariff system, which guarantees wind farms a fixed premium above regular prices.

“It is an issue we are also pushing whenever we have the chance of discussing it with authorities,” Vestas’ China Managing Director Lars Andersen said.

“We think one way to create a very sustainable industry is to have a feed-in tariff system,” he said, adding that some provinces were already looking at changing the system.

A lack of roads and aging or inadequate grid networks also hamper development in some areas with good wind power potential.

But the industry is still booming. Most analysts think Beijing’s target of 30 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity by 2020 is too modest, as China is already nearing its 2010 goal.

Planet Ark