“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, April 26 (Researcher Jin Bo) The sky is vast, the sea is blue. As wind power blows, the long arms of the white “big windmill” with smooth, smooth and shiny lines slowly rotate. As a result, wind turbines convert wind energy into electricity and feed it to thousands of households.

This is already a spectacular sight often seen in the land of China, especially when walking along the vast coastline. According to data released by the National Energy Administration, by the end of December 2023, the country's installed wind power capacity was about 440 million kilowatts, an increase of 20.7% over the previous year.

Behind this, a fact was revealed: China has become the country with the largest cumulative installed scale of offshore wind power.

In particular, since this year, China's offshore wind power projects have been launched continuously: in Zhejiang, major “1000 trillion” projects have been launched, and many large-scale offshore wind power projects such as the Daishan No. 1 offshore wind farm project are among them; in Guangdong and Huizhou Port offshore wind farms have been connected to the grid on schedule, marking that the first million-kilowatt offshore wind power project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been fully completed and put into operation; in Shandong, the Three Gorges Muping wind farm with a total investment of 4.6 billion yuan has already started.

In dealing with the dual challenges of global climate change and sustainable development goals, it has become a global consensus to go hand in hand with the energy revolution and energy saving and emission reduction. As a typical example of clean renewable energy, wind power has become the backbone of this energy transition due to its rich resources, mature technology, and environmental friendliness.

Among them, the complete wind power industry, as the core carrier for wind power development, has a critical impact on promoting the widespread application of wind power, achieving the “dual carbon” goal, and building a green energy system. How to seize the opportunity of this wave of global green transformation tests the wisdom of the government, industry, and academia.

What did Chinese wind power complete machinery companies do?

At the heart of the energy revolution is the transition from fossil energy to clean renewable energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As a zero-emission, resource-rich energy type, wind power has significant emission reduction effects and stable power supply capacity, especially in the context where resources are widely distributed on land and at sea.

Energy saving and emission reduction is another important way to achieve energy saving goals. By improving energy efficiency, energy consumption and carbon emissions per unit of output are reduced. Meanwhile, the wind power machine industry has also played a key role in this regard. Through technological innovation and large-scale development, it continues to reduce wind power costs, making wind energy a more competitive source of electricity. This has directly promoted the clean transformation of the energy structure, so that the share of wind power in electricity supply is increasing year by year, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

As a leader in the global wind power industry, wind power machine companies have shown strong competitiveness in domestic and foreign markets, such as Goldwind Technology, Envision Energy, and Mingyang Intelligence, etc., which not only have a significant share in the domestic market, but have also emerged on the global stage.

Recently, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a world-renowned research institute, announced the 2023 ranking of new global wind power installations and machine manufacturers. Among them, Chinese wind power companies showed an overwhelming advantage. Among the top five global wind turbine manufacturers with new capacity, Chinese companies occupied four seats, and Goldwind Technology also ranked first with 16.4 gigawatts of new installed capacity.

According to the data, in 2023, the new installed capacity of global wind power reached 118 gigawatts, of which the Chinese market contributed up to 65%, with a strong installed capacity of 77 gigawatts, becoming the main driving force for global wind power growth.

At present, China's wind power machinery companies have made significant progress in technology. In particular, thanks to breakthroughs in component localization technology, China's offshore wind power industry chain system is being improved step by step, and core components are gradually becoming larger and lighter.

In order to understand the situation of Chinese wind power equipment companies in technology research and development, “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” researchers identified companies such as Goldwind Technology, Mingyang Intelligence, and Sany Heavy Energy from relevant listed companies and conducted case studies.

Overall, these listed companies are building their own competitiveness in the industry through technological innovation.

Among them, Goldwind Technology, as a leading enterprise in the field of wind power equipment, continues to promote technological innovation. Its “OceanX” dual-rotor floating wind power platform is a model for innovative practices. This platform uses a unique double rotor design to effectively improve power generation efficiency and reduce the cost per kilowatt. At the same time, by optimizing the floating infrastructure design, industrial digital manufacturing and modular construction are realized, the construction cost of offshore wind power projects is reduced, and an efficient solution is provided for large-scale development of deep-sea wind power.

Mingyang Intelligence, on the other hand, has shown innovative strength in the field of offshore wind power. The launch of the 16MW offshore fan with the largest stand-alone capacity in the world, as well as the world's first three-dimensional integrated development project for offshore wind power, seawater hydrogen production, and marine ranch, demonstrated its technical strength in large-scale fans and comprehensive offshore energy development.

In the manufacture of complete wind turbines, with the successful development and application of 16MW offshore fans and in-depth exploration of floating wind power technology, Sany Heavy Energy has not only achieved a significant increase in fan power, but also provided strong support for solving technical bottlenecks in deep-sea wind power development.

According to media reports, at present, large-scale data on wind power components in China has reached the leading level. Among them, the MySE292 offshore super-large blade independently developed by Mingyang Intelligence Company has a blade length of 143 meters and an impeller diameter of 292 meters. It is the largest wind turbine blade with an impeller diameter that has been discontinued in the world.

Meanwhile, Goldwind Technology successfully completed the 185-meter wind tower hoisting, which is equivalent to 60 stories high, setting a new global record for the height of onshore wind power towers, and expanding new boundaries for the efficient development and utilization of wind energy resources.

Some experts said that China's wind turbine manufacturing capacity accounts for 60% of the global market; among the top ten global wind turbine companies, 6 are from China. The localization rate for the main components of wind power has reached 95%. Key component technologies such as high-power generators and 100-meter blades are also continuing to break through. In 2023, Chinese wind power equipment companies successively won orders in Europe and North America, and the annual export value of wind power units reached 33.6 billion yuan.

Policy leadership and future prospects

It should be said that the rapid growth and progress of China's wind power industry is not unrelated to the strong support of China's relevant policies.

On the one hand, the increase in market demand has led to the rapid development of the wind power machine industry; on the other hand, breakthroughs in domestic wind turbine technology, such as high-capacity units, customized design, and intelligent operation and maintenance, have improved wind energy utilization and reduced electricity costs, making wind power economically competitive with traditional energy in the electricity market. Furthermore, the improvement of the wind power industry chain and the rise of new development models such as offshore wind power and decentralized wind power have further broadened the application fields of wind power and enhanced the contribution of wind power to the transformation of the energy structure.

Overall, China's wind power industry has far exceeded expectations in terms of technological progress, cost reduction, and market size increase.

Experts believe that policy, as an important driver for the development of China's wind turbine industry, will continue to play a key guiding role. Previously, the national level had issued top-level documents such as the “14th Five-Year Plan” and the “14th Five-Year Plan” for renewable energy development, clarifying the development path of renewable energy technology, markets, and finance, and drawing up a clear development blueprint for the wind power industry.

In summary, the future of the wind power machine industry will continue to evolve along the following path:

Driven by technological innovation: Wind turbine technology will develop in the direction of higher efficiency, greater capacity, greater environmental adaptability, and lower operation and maintenance costs. Blade design, material innovation, intelligent control system upgrades, offshore wind power platform optimization, floating wind power technology breakthroughs, etc. will promote the performance improvement of wind turbines and meet the stable operation requirements in complex environments. Furthermore, the application of digital and intelligent technology will further improve the refined management and operation and maintenance efficiency of wind farms.

Market model innovation: Wind power equipment companies will actively explore new business models, such as wind storage integration, complementary wind power and traditional energy, and securitization of wind farm assets to broaden financing channels and attract more social capital to invest in wind power projects. At the same time, through deep integration with emerging business formats such as the energy Internet and virtual power plants, wind power will participate more effectively in electricity market transactions.

Expansion of application scenarios: With the advancement of wind power technology and the reduction of costs, the application scenarios of wind power will become more diversified. In addition to traditional onshore and offshore wind farms, deep-water wind power, ultra-high altitude wind power, and customized wind power projects with strong climate adaptability will become new growth points. Wind power will also be combined with agriculture, fishing, tourism and other industries to form a “wind power +” complex development model.

Strengthening international cooperation: In the context of global energy transformation, wind power manufacturers will actively participate in the international wind power market through technology sharing, experience exchange, and multinational cooperation.

Policy environment optimization: The government will continue to optimize the wind power policy environment, increase policy support and capital investment in the wind power industry, promote electricity market reforms, and strengthen the dominant position of wind power in the power system. At the same time, we will create a fairer, more transparent and favorable market environment for wind power projects through measures such as improving carbon pricing mechanisms and promoting green financial instruments.

We believe that as policies continue to be promoted and driven by the industry's own innovation, the future picture of the wind power machine industry will be jointly shaped, and the wind power industry will also contribute a key role in China's energy transformation.

(Researcher Jing Fuyi Li Yun also contributed to this article)

[About talent]

Jingfu is an all-weather one-stop value investment platform founded under the National Science and Technology Innovation Strategy. It focuses on serving the first-level equity investment market. It is an investment matching platform that enables outstanding science and innovation enterprises to join hands with local governments and industrial capital. On the basis of the joint construction of the original Finance Association, Carbon & She, Tianfeng Securities, and Xingong Consulting, we have joined hands with the Shanghai ESG team to build an ESG-based sustainable investment and financing service platform to help local governments build a sustainable investment promotion methodology; to provide government and industrial capital with a multi-dimensional service technology platform based on enterprise value discovery, presentation and tracking, to provide comprehensive professional support for the connection between capital and enterprise value.

“ESG Weekly”: A leading new media platform focusing on the ESG field under the Financial Federation and Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, covering investment in the primary and secondary markets, and has columns and products such as ESG matters, ESG assessments, and ESG industry alliances.