A SPLIT has emerged in China's wind power industry over its future development and government policies intended to avoid "excess capacity."

Some of China's large-scale wind power businesses have been lobbying the government to slow the growth of the industry because of alleged over-capacity.

They appeared to have won the debate in September when the State Council, China's Cabinet, approved a document from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and nine other ministries, stipulating the NDRC would hold back funding or approval for projects in industries with production overcapacity. Wind energy was among the industries listed.

But the "over-capacity of production" charge is untrue, argued Qin Haiyan, secretary-general of China Wind Energy Association (CWEA).

"The production overcapacity, as reported in the media or calculated by some government agencies, is based on the development programs of many enterprises. It is open to question whether these capacities will be realized," said Qin.

The country has more than 80 wind turbine producers, double the number in 2004, as well as about 50 wind turbine blade producers and nearly 100 tower producers.

"Among the 80 plants, about 30 never produced any wind turbines previously," according to Li Ye, director of the Energy Conservation, Science, Technology and Equipment Department of National Energy Administration (NEA). He made the comment late last month.

The debate comes in the run-up to the Wind Power Asia Exhibition and Conference (WPA) in June next year. More than 50 foreign businesses have booked booths, accounting for about one half of the total reservations, said David Feng, managing director of Koelnmesse Co Ltd, the organizer.

20-fold increase

WPA 2010, to be held at China National Convention Center in Beijing, is expected to attract more than 500 exhibitors, including the Danish Wind Energy Group, the Association of Technology Transfer of the Netherlands and the Energy Supply Chain from Spain.

Before 2004, China's wind power industry was almost non-existant. Its total installed capacity of wind power has grown about 20-fold from 764,000 kilowatts in 2004 to 15.85 million kilowatts by September 2009.

By the end of 2008, China's total wind power installed capacity was the fourth largest in the world after the United States, Germany and Spain. The newly increased installed capacity was the second largest, after the United States.

China now relies on coal to generate about 70 percent of its electric power, which means prospects for the wind energy sector are good.

China is expected to have 120 million to 150 million kilowatts of installed wind power capacity, totaling 7 to 9 percent of the national total installed electricity capacity, in 2020, according to the China Energy and Environment Technology Assn.

According to CWEA, in 2004, Chinese enterprises accounted for only 18 percent of the total wind power installed capacity on the Chinese mainland, while foreign enterprises -- mainly from Denmark, Germany and Spain -- provided 82 percent.

By the end of 2005, China had 1,864 wind turbines, producing 1.266 million kilowatts of power. Foreign businesses occupied 77.3 percent of the wind turbine market as well as exclusive control of high-end technological equipment.

The proportion was reversed by the end of 2008, when Chinese producers and joint ventures had 61.8 percent of the country's wind power equipment market. China has greatly improved its capacity in producing key components for wind turbines, which were largely imported previously.

Qin Haiyan of the CWEA said that China has basically been able to produce complete sets of turbine blades, gearboxes and generators. Although China has not yet fully solved the bottleneck in producing gearbox bearings and convertors, Qin said, some Chinese plants have been able to make some in small batches. The bottleneck is expected to be alleviated soon.

Independent tech

Although the technologies for the most commonly used 1.5MW turbines are largely made with technologies introduced from Europe, some Chinese plants have begun to jointly design such turbines with foreign counterparts, in a bid to eventually develop them independently.

In 2008, China had 20 independently developed types of wind turbines, up from four in 2007, according to the CWEA. It bought 12 technological licenses from abroad, down from 16 in 2007. It had 10 jointly designed turbines, up from eight in 2007.

Much of this progress in forming a complete industrial chain was attributed to the 70-percent localization requirement policy, promulgated by the NDRC in 2005. This required that at least 70 percent of wind power equipment be produced in China. Wind farms failing to adhere to the policy are not to be approved for construction.

The rate of localization was defined as the portion of total components in a wind turbine manufactured and assembled in China. As long as production took place domestically, the level of Chinese ownership in factories was immaterial.

The aim was to reduce costs of wind power generation, speed up wind power industrialization, and most important to encourage multinationals to invest in and transfer technologies to China.

The National Energy Administration says it plans to cancel the 70-percent localization policy soon to promote free and fair development, but no timetable has been set.

Liu Yanjun, public relations manager of Vestas Wind Systems (China), the world's largest wind turbine producer based in Denmark, said: "Our China-based plants have produced wind turbines with 80 percent components from China. Our objective is to have our China-based plants to produce wind turbines with 100 percent components from the country."

Qin said: "We cannot restrict competition simply because of excess capacity. Latecomers often become superior in emerging industries. We will promote technological progress and lower costs through market competition. We do not have to worry there are so many competitors at a specific stage."