Vestas has a company poised to take over its title as the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer in the next five years. China Longyuan Power Group Corp. anticipates spending about $13 billion to install nearly 16,000 MW of wind turbines in China and around the world by 2015, according to the company’s CEO Xie Changjun after a climate conference in Beijing.
“China so far has used only about 1% of its total estimated wind power resources and there is vast potential for future growth,” Xie said. Bloomberg New Energy Finance said on April 12 that global investment in renewable energy rose 31% in Q1 compared to the previous year. As it stands now, China Longyuan ranks fifth in the global wind power division with plans to move up the ladder to third place in two years. The company had 4,503 MW of capacity last year and may have 6,500 MW by the end of this year, it said in March.
China’s domestic wind power developers may see increased profit because of lower turbine installation costs and government-set fixed tariffs, Xie said.
China Longyuan is also looking into venturing into Africa – South Africa to be exact. However, the company will have steep competition in South Africa as many wind companies are already onboard the country’s wind market. Yet it isn’t too far-fetched for China Longyuan to overtake Vestas’ throne as China holds great opportunities for the sector. Especially considering that many foreign companies like Vestas, Gamesa, and Suzlon have voiced complaints that bids for Chinese projects continue to favor local Chinese companies (Manufacturers Face Wind Tunnel Problems in China).
China Longyuan purchases turbines from domestic suppliers whose prices are 20% less than overseas manufacturers, according to Xie. However, that doesn’t seem to stop Vestas from still taking a chunk of the pie as the company announced in July that it had received a 34-MW order from first-time customer China Fujian Wind Energy Company. Before that Vestas China, a subsidiary of Vestas Wind Systems, sold 58 V52-850kW wind turbines to Chinese Datang Tongliao Huolinhe Renewable Power through China National Water Resources & Electric Power Materials & Equipment. More recently, Vestas announced that it had received four orders from a major Chinese independent power producer totaling 198 MW consisting of 116 units of V52-850kW wind turbines and 50 units of V90-1.8/2.0 MW wind turbines for the Guangdong and Shandong provinces, respectively.
In Vestas’ Q1 2010 financial statement, the company said that it expects to have orders reaching 8,000-9,000 MW. The Danish company is also launching operations in the US expecting to add a total of 3,400 employees this year. China Longyuan has a long way to catch up to superpower Vestas as the Danish company only needs 3,200 MW of orders each year until 2015 to add 16,000 MW in five years, still placing it ahead of China Longyuan.
Subscribe to Alternative Energy Africa today for more in depth news in the alternative/renewable energy sector and be sure to grab your risk-free trial to see what we’re doing in 2010.
