China saw a record 70GW of tendering for wind turbines in 2019, as its industry began a dash to beat a policy deadline that senior industry figures warned would put huge strain on its supply chain and grid capacity.

The massive tender volume – more than double the level seen in 2018 – was revealed by the China Wind Energy Association (CWEA) at its annual new year conference in Beijing.

“Roughly 60GW of onshore wind projects and 10GW of offshore projects set off [turbine] tenders in the past year,” CWEA secretary-general Qin Haiyan disclosed in the meeting.

The record-breaking tender volume is driven by Beijing’s plan to shelve renewable subsidies over the next two years, prompting a rush to build and connect to secure premium rates.

Chinese onshore wind projects are slated to be subsidy-free from next year, and the industry is expecting regulators in Beijing soon to announce a policy that will axe support for offshore projects as of 2022.

The nation’s wind-rich northwestern provinces added to the frenzy by once again advancing mega-wind power complexes, as bans by Beijing expired.

Inner Mongolia, for example, kicked off at least a dozen projects totalling 21.4GW this year, including the record-setting 6GW Ulanqab project developed by State Power Investment Corp (SPIC).

SPIC easily had the largest tender volume offered to the market with almost 13GW, Qin of CWEA revealed in his presentation, followed by China Huarun and China Huaneng, each contributing almost 6GW.

The construction momentum has brought significant revenue boost for turbine and equipment suppliers, many of whose third-quarter reports show significant year-on-year growths in earnings, Recharge previously reported.

However, the industry has warned it will be mission impossible to fulfil most of the contracts and construction before Beijing’s subsidy deadline. “The coming five years is fraught with major uncertainty,” Qin warned.

Researchers at China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) recently predicted only 11.9GW offshore wind will be installed by 2021, against more than 40GW looking to connect, due to the constraints of supply chain capacity.

For onshore projects, another issue is the speed of grid expansion. “The grid companies already consider it a challenge to add 20GW of new [wind in 2020],” Qin said. “How many of the 60GW tenders could be able actually to kick off [this year]?”

Many of the projects may be forced to turn into zero-subsidy developments and accept a price cut in order to secure grid connections, leading to risky business cases, experts said.

In terms of installations last year, by November 2019 China had a cumulative wind capacity of 201GW, of which 16.5GW was connected in the first 11 months of the year, according to the NEA's report.

Wind

China smashes record with 70GW wind tender frenzy in 2019