Renewable Energy for China

Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH is financing a wind farm project in China by granting a loan of USD 10.2 million. This reference project marks the first time that commercial project financing has been available in the Chinese wind power segment. Together with its Chinese partner Qingdao Dongyi Industrial Corporation, German company Nordex AG will be installing wind turbines with a total capacity of 16.1 megawatts in the province of Shandong. The project has been developed by German company InfraVest GmbH.

Nordex AG is one of the worlds seven largest wind turbine makers and, with a share of 48 percent, currently the market leader in China. Further extensions to its Chinese activities constitute part of Nordex AGs international strategy, which is growing in importance in view of the increasingly saturated German on-shore markets. This reference project aims to demonstrate the viability of commercially financed and operated wind farms in China. This is also the first time that the efficient megawatt turbines are to be used in a major Chinese project. All told, the farm comprises 12 N62/1,300 kW turbines and two smaller N29/250 kW models. The order is worth around USD 14 million for Nordex.

With an output of 15,000 billion kilowatt/hours, the Peoples Republic of China is already the worlds second largest energy consumer after the United States. It is estimated that mounting industrialization and rising living standards will cause energy consumption to surge six-fold by 2050. China therefore urgently requires alternative forms of electricity production. At the moment, 75 percent of its output is derived from coal. Many Chinese cities suffer severely from thick smog, causing respiratory illnesses on the part of their inhabitants as a result of the polluted air.

Promoting wind power forms a key source of impetus for the diversification of energy production in China in the interests of reducing the countrys dependency on the limited supplies of coal on the one hand and to reduce the output of greenhouse gases to meet the targets stipulated in the Kyoto protocol on the other. Steady and powerful breezes blow from the desert regions in the province of Xinjiang along the North Western border across the Mongolian steppes to the coastal regions in the South East. According to one study, China has theoretical wind power availability of 250,000 megawatts, making it one of the largest potential markets in the world.

Private-sector activity is very welcome in China in connection with the production of regenerative energy. Looking ahead, wind farms are increasingly to be constructed and operated on a commercial basis.