The North Jiangsu sea area has inherent advantages

In the 12th Five Year Plan for wind power development published by the national energy administration earlier, Jiangsu, as the ninth wind power base in the 12th Five Year Plan, clearly pointed out to promote the construction and development of offshore wind power in Yancheng and Nantong sea areas. The National Energy Administration issued the national offshore wind power development and construction plan (2014-2016), planning 44 projects with a total installed capacity of 10.53 million kilowatts.

Among them, Jiangsu accounted for 18 projects, with a total installed capacity of 3.4897 million kilowatts, accounting for about one third of the country. As of June this year, the installed capacity of clean energy power generation in Jiangsu Province reached 9.76 million kilowatts, of which the installed capacity of wind power reached 3.63 million kilowatts and the installed capacity at sea was about 370000 kilowatts, of which the offshore wind potential ranked first in the country. In addition, Jiangsu wind power equipment manufacturing also has a certain scale. The planning once again involves the northern Jiangsu sea area, which further indicates that Jiangsu offshore wind power continues to accelerate.

Qin Haiyan, Secretary General of the wind energy professional committee of the China Renewable Energy Society, said:

Jiangsu offshore wind power development has a certain foundation and experience, and there are good practices in both equipment manufacturing and project development. Of course, sea use planning is the result of coordination of various functions, not only because the resource base is good, it is planned as a wind power functional area.

Cost restricts the development of offshore wind power

In fact, the Three Gorges Project in Northern Jiangsu has long been mentioned. For many years, the development of onshore wind power in Northern Jiangsu has been rapid, but offshore wind power has been in the wait-and-see stage. Qin Haiyan said that there are indeed many factors restricting the development of offshore wind power, of which high risk and low output are the core issues.

Considering the level of offshore electricity price, the notice on offshore wind power price policy stipulates in terms of price that the on grid price of non bidding offshore wind power projects is 0.85 yuan per kWh (including tax, the same below), and the on grid price of intertidal wind power projects is 0.75 yuan per kWh. Compared with the developed countries in offshore wind power industry, there is a certain gap in such electricity price level. For example, the on grid electricity price of offshore wind power in Britain is currently about 1.58 yuan per kWh, and that in Denmark is about 1.14 yuan per kWh. According to the electricity price of 0.85 yuan per kilowatt hour, a 100 MW offshore wind farm has 2400 equivalent hours, an investment of 14000 yuan per kilowatt hour, a loan term of 15 years, an interest rate of 6%, and an internal rate of return of capital of about 8.91%, less than 9%.

The wind power market should be regulated under the overall environment of the power market.

After the wind power is connected to the grid, other energy sources, such as thermal power, nuclear power, hydropower, etc., are all in the same grid environment. From the perspective of the power purchaser, the power of the same quality will naturally be biased towards the cheaper one. According to the existing offshore electricity price level, it is actually not enough to suppress the high risks in the development, construction and operation of the project, which limits the enthusiasm for investment.

North Jiangsu wind power can be attached to Yangtze River Delta

Lei Zhen, deputy director of the hydropower and new energy department of the regulation and control center of Jiangsu electric power company, said:

The energy consumption of Jiangsu Province is about 300 million tons of standard coal, and the power consumption is about 80 million kwh. The wind power consumed by Jiangsu Power Grid accounts for 20% of the total power consumption. However, the installed capacity of 3.613 million kilowatts of wind power is still less than 3% of the total power consumption. In other words, from the perspective of power grid capacity, Jiangsu wind power still has at least six times the development space.

Lei Zhen said that by the end of the 13th five year plan, the installed capacity of wind power in Jiangsu Province will reach 10 million kilowatts, including 5.5 million kilowatts of offshore wind power. At that time, the installed capacity of offshore wind power in Jiangsu Province will fully exceed that of onshore wind power. According to the dispatching data of Jiangsu electric power company, as of June 2015, there was no offshore wind turbine connected to the grid in Jiangsu, which means that in the next five years, Jiangsu will complete the installation of 5.5 million kilowatts of offshore wind power.

With the large-scale development of offshore wind power, can Jiangsu's energy consumption close to the province ensure the consumption of wind power? Qin Haiyan said that at present, the consumption of wind power in Northern Jiangsu is 100%. In the case of large-scale development of offshore wind power, wind power in Northern Jiangsu does not have to be consumed in this province. "The Yangtze River Delta is a power load center, and the total power consumption is relatively large. It is not very difficult in short-distance power transmission and power dispatching. Consumption is not the main contradiction here (in Northern Jiangsu)." Qin Haiyan said.

The planning provides site selection guidance

Qin Haiyan believes that the planning of the functional area is very important. The introduction of the plan can provide a clear guidance for the planning and site selection of offshore wind power projects by clarifying the main functions, and avoid finding that the sea area is not available at the implementation stage and wasting the early investment.

In order to ensure the large-scale development and construction of offshore wind farms and the safe and reliable operation of the power grid, the offshore wind turbines must be tested and verified before installation and operation, and their impact on the power grid must be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. At the same time, it is necessary to carry out the construction of offshore wind power grid connection detection capacity to solve the problem of grid connection consumption of offshore wind power.

As the first offshore (intertidal) demonstration wind power project in China, the wind turbine utilization hours of wind farms in Jiangsu, such as Donghai, reached more than 2800 hours in 2014, which is far higher than other wind farms in Northern Jiangsu. The higher utilization rate makes the investment return of offshore wind power much higher.

At present, Jiangsu Province has planned five large-scale offshore wind farms along the coast of Northern Jiangsu

For example, the 100000 kW intertidal offshore wind power project in Rudong planned and constructed by Sinohydro group in Jiangsu, and the 300 MW offshore wind power project in Binhai of Datang Guoxin Yancheng. The five offshore wind farms all follow the "double ten" principle, that is, the offshore distance of wind turbines is not less than 10 kilometers, and the water depth of the sea area is not less than 10 meters when the beach width is more than 10 kilometers. While avoiding land conflicts, the coastal wind energy is fully utilized.

Qin Haiyan said:

The 13th Five Year Plan period is an important period for steadily promoting the development of offshore wind power. The main task is to accelerate the industrialization process and technical management level of offshore wind power, improve various capabilities through demonstration project construction, and gradually realize large-scale development.

(responsible editor: Wang Yiran)