By Wan Zhihong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-07 06:31

As chairman and CEO of the world's leading wind power company Gamesa, Guillermo Ulacia has no doubts about his company's objectives in China.

"By the end of 2007, we will invest 35 million euros in the China industrial project," he says.

The Spanish company opened its first plant in Tianjin last September to assemble nacelles, which hold wind turbines designed for an annual output capacity of 700 megawatts (MW).

But the nacelle assembly line is only the first step in Gamesa's China strategy. It will be followed by a plant to manufacture wind blades.

The Chinese market has become one of the most important markets for Gamesa, with the Tianjin project its second production plant outside Spain, Ulacia says.

Investment that poured into wind power in Tianjin came not only from Gamesa. Vestas of Denmark and Suzlon of India are also building facilities. Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, says it plans to build Tianjin into its logistics center for the Asia-Pacific region.

The use of wind power, as a clean and renewable energy source, has seen rapid growth in China in recent years, as has the businesses of suppliers. By the end of 2006 the total installed capacity of wind power in the country was about 2,600 MW. In 2006 alone China added a total of 1,300 MW of installed wind power generation.

Energy produced from wind power was 1,266 MW in 2005, when there were 61 wind farms in 15 provinces and 1,864 grid-connected turbine generators, said a joint report by the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, Greenpeace and the Global Wind Energy Council.

In April, China Energy Conservation Investment Corp, a large State-owned enterprise, began construction on China's first million-kilowatt wind power project in Zhangbei, in the highlands between Beijing and Inner Mongolia.

When completed, the project will generate 440 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. A total of 1.6 billion yuan has been earmarked for the project.

Compared with a thermal power generator of the same capacity, such a wind farm can save 166,000 tons of standard coal and cut the emission of sulfur dioxide by 7,454 tons and that of carbon dioxide by 395,000 tons annually, says the company.

"This year the nation's wind power industry will continue to see quick growth. In 2007, the installed capacity is expected to be increased by another 1,000 MW," says Shi Pengfei, vice-chairman of the Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA).

Shi estimates that China possesses a 1,000-gigawatt (GW) potential in wind energy, 250 GW on land, mainly in the northwest and the east coast, and 750 GW offshore.

By 2020, wind power will have a market value of $1.25 billion, making China potentially the world's largest market.

(China Daily 09/07/2007 page43)