More Zombies: China Littered With Idle Wind Power

Renewable energy is a central planning disaster all over the world and China may lay claim to being the biggest disaster area. This is ameliorated only by the fact that China doesn't really buy into a green agenda: China is still building coal and nuclear generation as fast as possible. Unlike nations that are swapping low cost power for high cost renewables, China's renewable investments are simply one more misallocated resource in the world's largest credit bubble, now left idle because they cannot profitably produce energy. It's also a story of China's "decentralized" central planning, where each province wants economic production in its own borders. The result is a patchwork of power generation and failure to maximize economies of scale.

But now, some places in China, but there has been such a strange phenomenon, these huge investments in clean energy built up, do not let use, especially in the northwest, a large wind power plant was forced to disable. (All in 2015 on the map you can see them, the hardest hit of wind power has been disabled: Inner Mongolia, wind power brownouts rate is 18%; Gansu wind power brownouts rate of 39%; brownouts rate in Xinjiang is 32%; Jilin limited power of 32%. according to the national energy Board, which disabled the wind power equipment, causing direct economic losses of over 16 billion yuan.)

On the one hand is the governance environment, determination ton output capacity, the other is the rest of us desire to improve air pollution; so, why would so many clean energy can not be properly put to use? This is how it? Our reporter was removed nearly ten cities, you uncover the real reason for large-scale wind power bases shut down.

....Reporter survey is the first leg of Jiuquan, Gansu, according to the latest statistics show that last year, close to 40 percent of the wind power plants are limited, and a national wind power equipment off the worst areas, when the cost of hundreds of billions to build wind power base, now only basking in the sun in the Gobi.

From the Jiuquan city, drove two hours, the reporter finally came to this wind power base, the local weather forecast display, the day wind reached 7, but most of the windmill, but stands motionless in the Gobi.

This is not an ordinary project, is the first large-scale wind power bases in China. In 2008, it passed the national examination and approval, was also written into the National Energy Board, the Eleventh Five, five-second renewable energy planning, many people regard it is called "Land of the Three Gorges." Such a major project, why built, windmills do not work?

The original windmill does not operate, by the Gansu power department's orders. Staff told reporters, and now some period of time, the power generation is less than one-tenth.

Basically, the maximum output are hundreds, but currently contribute less than ten. Now count between 5% to 10% better, and if you press the down trend statistics, a single day brownouts close to 70% to 80%.

Reporters noted that in another plant, the dispatcher is also shutting down windmills, because the provincial power company asked them to continue to reduce power generation.

If idle power exceeds 20%, no new projects should be started:

In the last six months of investigation, the reporter found, Gansu windmill stall is not the case, in order to prevent the situation continues to deteriorate, the National Energy Board even clear requirements, brownouts abandoned wind more than 20% of the country can not arrange a new project.

Why is the power idle? China's supply side investments:

Gansu Provincial Power Company to provide such a data reporter: in 2015, the province's electricity consumption is more than 13 million kilowatts; but the new energy installed capacity has exceeded 17 million kilowatts (17.8 million kilowatts), the local use is simply impossible.

Other provinces also don't want to use Gansu power, and so don't want transmission lines built:

From the Northwest power grid distribution point of view, the current transmission lines only and Gansu provinces Northwest connections, do not want to use these provinces Gansu electricity. Extra power in order to send out to rely on inter-provincial long-distance transmission lines. Can now, but there is no such line, this way, only windmill stall.

　　State Grid Energy Research Institute of New Energy Source and Statistics Director Li Qionghui explained: "There is no power and synchronize project plan, presented in 2009, so planning inside, down the entire program approved until 2015 to get the approval of the application, which led to the current severe brownouts abandoned wind, clean energy to send out a large number of the main reasons. "

Not only are renewables sitting idle, but some provinces are launching new coal projects:

Hubei, Jiangxi two provinces, currently not only welcome new energy, also launched a large number of coal power generation project, why?

Hubei Province, last year, approved six coal projects, the total installed capacity reached 7.98 million kilowatts. Equivalent to one third of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station.

Hubei province is indeed a shortage of a few years ago, the demand for electricity is large, but now, can solve this problem, not only has the Jiuquan specialized in Hunan transmission line to power transmission, there is a special railway from Inner Mongolia sent coal, while the comparison, select the coal, not only can stimulate economic jobs in the local power plant construction, and in recent years, coal prices have been declining, the price is cheaper.

The neighboring Jiangxi province, although the number of coal projects approved last year, two fewer than in Hubei, but the scale and Hubei almost the equivalent of one-third of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station.

...Today such an event staged again, but the protagonist from the year of natural gas into the wind. National development concept is to gradually replace coal with renewable energy; however as it is implemented at the local level, the construction of coal power plants accelerated. Which is exactly where the problem?

China needs more energy and it wants cheaper energy (as should anyone who wants economic growth). China's also wasting untold billions on power capacity, some of which lands in the renewable energy space.

Sina: 甘肃千亿风电基地停摆 国家电网推责国家能源局

From 2014: China on world's 'biggest push' for wind power
Early 2016: China To Increase Wind Power Capacity By 22% In 2016
Last week: Facing Grid Constraints, China Puts a Chill on New Wind Energy Projects

Chinese regulators said the windswept regions of Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Gansu, Ningxia and Xinjiang will suspend the approval of new wind projects in 2016, according to a March 17 statement published on the website of China's National Energy Administration. The six regions have installed nearly 71 gigawatts of turbines, more than the rest of China combined. It's at least the fourth time in five years that Beijing has ordered wind operators there to slow down growth.

...But too much of that energy is being squandered. In 2015 alone, 33.9 billion kilowatt-hours of wind-powered electricity was wasted, government statistics show—equivalent to the electricity consumed by 3 million American households a year. That was about 15 percent of China's total wind power generation, up from 8 percent a year earlier.

Some of the wind-generated electricity had no place to go because there's no transmission infrastructure to carry the power to population centers. In other cases, developers couldn't compete with coal for contracts to connect to the grid.

Also: China’s Huadian Fuxin will slow wind farm expansion and seek power-swap deals

Huadian Fuxin Energy, — the renewable energy unit of one of China’s biggest state-owned power generators China Huadian Group — will slow wind-farm installations due to ongoing power-grid bottlenecks.

The company will also seek to ‘swap’ power allocations with coal-fired producers. The aim would be to pump more wind-generated energy into the grid and sell it in central and eastern China.

Such moves would lessen the amount of energy from coal and require other generators to decrease output.

Grid operators’ approval is also needed.

“We will offer to pay the coal-fired producers sums equivalent to or slightly higher than their profit margins, so that they are no worse, or better off,” Fuxin chairman Fang Zheng said in an interview.

Subsidised wind power prices are higher than those of coal-fired power.