By Lu Haoting (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-14 14:27

Han Wind's project in Inner Mongolia covers a total area of 188 sq km and has a total capacity for 1 GW of wind power development. The company has completed wind data collection, technical assessments and government approvals on the site for the first 50 MW. Construction will start in 2008.

Han Wind is still waiting for government approval for the second phase of 250 MW and the construction is expected to start in 2009 or 2010. Page says he is talking with two State-owned utility companies and one local firm in the autonomous region to jointly carry out the second phase of the project.

"Wind resources across Inner Mongolia are very favorable," Page says, adding that the region has wind speeds of 8 meters per second or higher generating capacity factors to over 34 percent.

"The region is very suitable to develop large scale wind farms on the order of 50MW to 300 MW," Page says.

Six wind power stations have been completed in Inner Mongolia, with a total installation capacity of 166 MW. The autonomous region's total installed wind power capacity could be greater than 4 GW by 2010, Page says.

Challenge

A big problem on investors' agenda is the higher cost of wind power generation compared with traditional thermal power. The high cost is mainly due to the fact that 80 percent of China's wind turbine equipment is imported. The cost of wind turbine equipment takes up about 80 percent of the total costs. Using domestic turbines, the costs could drop about 15 percent. But the quality of Chinese wind turbine technology still lags behind.

Page says Han Wind is using international turbines in its first phase.

"Wind projects are very capital intensive. We cannot afford to be retrofitting the turbines in the first five years because we are losing money right away. So it was difficult in our first project to convince our international investors to deal with domestic turbine manufacturers," Page says.

He says the problem with domestic manufacturers is that some of their turbines are not certified. They also face challenges in the supply chain to ensure components' quality as each turbine should last for 20 years. They also need to be strong enough to provide proper maintenance and support.

But he says Han Wind is looking at equipment produced by some established domestic companies and is considering using their products for future projects. These companies include Goldwind Science &Technology Co Ltd, based in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Beijing-based Sinovel Wind Co Ltd and Zhejiang Windey Wind Generating Engineering Co Ltd.

"I think over the long term turbine costs in China will decrease because the growth of all these domestic manufacturers will start to bring pressure on international companies," Page says.

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