financial association, October 19 (reporter Xiao lianghua) the 2023 Beijing wind energy conference recently held in Beijing has become the industry's premier event in the past two years (postponed and canceled last year due to the epidemic). almost all the exhibition hall staff continue to be full. more than 1,000 industrial chain enterprises gather from all walks of life to look for cooperation opportunities and understand the industry trend.

"In 2020, only more than 400 companies will participate in the exhibition. This year, more than 1000 companies have signed up for the exhibition. The area of the exhibition hall has also increased significantly. China's wind power industry has not shrunk due to parity, but has grown rapidly." At the Sany Heavy Energy (688349.SH) booth, a person in charge told the Caixin News Agency.

the grand event has become a show for big fans. in the exhibition "innovation theater", trinity energy, jinfeng technology (002202.SZ), yunda shares (300772.SZ) and other industry leading enterprises have successively released a new generation of large megawatt products.

"it's not enough. There are too many new products in various enterprises. One by one, the organizers only give us a little time, which is not enough." The head of a complete machine enterprise research institute told the Caixin News Agency reporter.

The domestic wind power industry has moved from a follower of the industry to a leader, wind turbines have rapidly iterated, and the market has moved from domestic to global. It has entered the "no man's land" of the industry. While meeting opportunities, it is facing more difficult challenges. The reliability of the whole life cycle and supply chain security have become the focus of the industry.

Wind Capacity Arms Race

at the 2020 wind energy exhibition, 4-5MW products are the leading role in the new product launch. just three years later, the single unit capacity of onshore wind turbines has exceeded double digits. seven head enterprises have intensively released 10 + MW onshore wind turbine models, and offshore wind turbines are even more powerful.

in the "innovation theater" of the exhibition, on October 17, dongfang electric (600875.SH) officially released three new products: 18MW direct-drive offshore wind turbine, 18MW semi-direct-drive offshore wind turbine and 10MW + onshore wind turbine.

On the same day, Sany Heavy Energy released the world's largest onshore wind turbine-Sany Heavy Energy 15MW wind turbine, and 13/16MW offshore wind turbine. At the same time, China Shipbuilding Sea released H260-12.5MW offshore wind turbines, China Car Zhuzhou 14-16MW offshore wind turbines appeared, Yunda shares launched the "Sea Wind" series of 15MW Sea Eagle platform anti-platform offshore wind turbines and 9MW Sea Harrier platform anti-platform offshore wind turbines.

on the 18th, jinfeng technology released a new series of onshore units with power covering 6.X- 10.X. at the same time, the company released a new series of offshore units with development and design for sea areas with different wind speed characteristics. the impeller diameter is 26X and the power covers 12.X- 16.X.

The change drive brought about by large-scale is still to reduce costs, lower LCOE and save land resources. Xu Fengfei, vice president of Vision Energy (China) and general manager of solutions, said that compared with the past 1.5MW and 2MW fans, 10MW products can save a lot of costs that are not used for power generation, reduce LCOE to the greatest extent, and make a lot of contributions to the owners.

The rapid growth of fans benefits from the support of the domestic industry chain. Reporters from the Financial Association saw at the exhibition site that among the participating enterprises, domestic enterprises occupied the absolute majority, and the suppliers of core components such as converters, main control and pitch bearings had changed from foreign enterprises to domestic enterprises.

Reliability is key

The era of large megawatt wind turbines is rapidly approaching, bringing new challenges to the industry. "The model becomes larger and the power generation efficiency is improved, but the production is more difficult. For example, a set of blades covers an area of 1000 square meters, and the construction is much more laborious. In addition, if there is a problem with reliability, the loss is also a geometric magnification." A person in charge of the exhibitors said.

Xu Fengfei, vice president of Envision Energy (China) and general manager of solutions, said that the core of large-scale wind turbines is reliability, ensuring stable performance throughout the life cycle, and higher requirements for suppliers in the industry chain.

Zhang Kai, assistant to the general manager of China Shipbuilding Offshore Wind Power Co., Ltd., said that from the perspective of market-driven or technological development, the industry recognizes large-scale development. However, whether onshore or offshore, the basic theory of wind power and the iteration of components such as blades are difficult to overcome. "The rapid iteration and rapid introduction of the unit to the market, the test verification should be said to be insufficient, so there are still many problems leading to the large-scale in the past two years."

In this regard, Jiang Yong, Chief Technology Officer and Dean of the Engineering and Technology Research Institute of Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group Co., Ltd., said that China's wind power industry has now entered no man's land. In the future, it is necessary to strengthen the large-scale The basic research lays a good foundation for large-scale and promotes the healthy development of large-scale wind turbines.

Wan Yubin, chief technical officer of the wind power division of CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute Co., Ltd., also said that domestic generators should continue to innovate and improve the verification system. "At all stages and links of the product, through effective testing and verification methods, the expectations and prerequisites at the beginning of the design can be accurately closed-loop, so that the product can truly walk steadily and go far on the road of large-scale."

The Caixin News Agency reporter noted that many head companies have created their own characteristics and launched differentiated products on the basis of large-scale. For example, Sany Heavy Energy is committed to the verification of fan materials, components, subsystems and multi-level levels of the whole machine, and has built its own ultra-high power six-degree-of-freedom transmission chain life test bench. Dongfang Electric's 18MW semi-direct drive offshore wind turbine (DEW-H18000) uses the highly integrated semi-direct drive technology route independently developed by Dongfang Wind Power. Its wind wheel diameter is 260 meters, the transmission chain adopts modular design, the shaft system, gear box and generator are highly integrated, and the weight and size of the engine room are better, which greatly improves the reliability of the transmission chain.

Supply chain security needs to be localized

China's global participation in wind power is getting higher and higher. As the world's largest wind power market and the largest wind power equipment manufacturing base, China's wind power components and complete machine output account for more than 60% of the global market share, and the output of key components accounts for 70% of the global market. China's wind power industry has achieved full coverage of technology research and development, development and construction, equipment supply, testing and certification, and supporting services, and a highly specialized and international business chain has taken shape.

Domestic wind power companies are actively going to sea, and supply chain security has become a lot of overseas considerations. At the entrepreneur forum of "global wind power industry layout and supply chain security" hosted by Zhao Feng, strategic director of Global Wind Energy Council, Xue Naichuan, vice president of Goldwind Technology Co., Ltd. and general manager of wind power industry group, said that every country hopes its own industry can develop, and after enterprises go out to sea, capital localization, market localization, manpower localization, management localization, etc. should make full use of existing local resources and mature supply chains to combine and develop locally, rather than entering in an alternative or impact way.

Peng Chaocai, vice president of sunshine power supply and chairman of sunshine hydrogen energy company, also said that after going out to sea, enterprises should strengthen cooperation with local enterprises, and make use of localized division of labor to diversify business models. "However, domestic enterprises should keep ahead in technology, do a good job in brand promotion and form their own brand power; secondly, cultivate a large number of overseas talents; finally, do a good job in industrial layout, which will help other regions to make breakthroughs."

Mingyang Intelligent Ye Fan also expressed similar views. He believes that China's wind power going out is to master the core technology and adhere to independent innovation; the second is to introduce foreign technology, talents and funds. "In the process of working with international partners, whether it is the whole machine or the supply chain, it is necessary to generate trust through constant collisions and establish standards of mutual trust, and finally achieve consensus. In addition, Chinese companies also need to build their brand value in order to better enjoy a foothold in mature emerging markets."

(Xiao Lianghua, Caixin News Agency reporter)