ABB eyes opportunities in China's clean-energy drive

ABB Group, an electricity and automation solution provider based in Zurich, sees great opportunities in China's clean-energy incorporation and micro grid drive, according to its top executive.

"China has determined its goals in carbon dioxide reduction. This goal is going to generate large investment in a lot of sectors," says Claudio Facchin, president of ABB's power grids division.

The Swiss multinational offers technologies for incorporating clean energy into conventional grids. According to Facchin, its high-voltage direct-current technology can ensure stable and cost-effective long-distance electricity transfers.

ABB has been working on the Xiangjiaba-Shanghai electricity transmission route, which will transfer power nearly 2,000 kilometers from Chongqing to 24 million users in Shanghai using HVDC technology.

HVDC is recognized as one of the most reliable technologies for long-distance power transmission. The first commercial HVDC route was built in Sweden in 1954 by ASEA, which is now ABB.

ABB has more than 110 HVDC projects worldwide. It has been involved in 22 of China's 30 HVDC projects, providing core technological support.

In terms of small-scale clean-energy incorporation, ABB has sophisticated automatic solutions and power storage technologies for micro grids to ensure stability, Facchin says.

The Swiss company has also collaborated with South Korea's Samsung SDI and China's automaker BYD Co in electricity storage, a key technology for the stability of micro grids.

"China's renewable-energy drive started by enhancing installed capacity. The country now has the largest wind and photovoltaic market," says Gu Chuanyuan, chairman and president of ABB (China) Ltd.

"In the next phase, particularly after China joined the climate treaty in Paris, it has more ambitious plans. The more wind turbines we build, the higher the requirements on stability and safety get. ABB has an all-around solution in technologies, portfolio and market coverage that we can offer to the China market in terms of how to get renewable energy's incorporation under control."

The unused installed capacity of clean energy is a major bottleneck faced by China's environmental drive, Qin Haiyan, director of the wind power committee at the China National Renewable Energy Center, said at a seminar last month.

He says the losses of electricity caused by idle wind-power capacity amounted to 101.5 billion kilowatt-hours from 2010 to 2015, equaling the total power generated by the Three Gorges Dam and the Gezhouba hydropower plants last year.

yangziman@chinadaily.com.cn