China’s Wind Strategy could be Blowing Smoke

In this article, director of Azure research and advisory division Sebastian Meyer is quoted from a presentation he gave at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum in Beijing. Meyer, speaking on China’s grid connectivity problems, said that a reticence on the part of local utilities to develop and connect renewable energy projects to the grid and a lack of sufficient transmission capacity to bring power to load centers were contributing to the under-utilization of China’s wind resources. He said the incentive structures are for installed capacity, not for delivered kilowatts to consumers. He also said that a solution currently gaining traction is for a central government take-over of China’s wind industry, through its construction of massive wind bases.