Barriers Identification for Wind Power Generation Technology Transfer in China

1
Barriers Identification for Wind Power Generation
Technology Transfer in China

• By Li Junfeng
• Director of Center for Renewable Energy
  Development
• January 17-19, Cebu

2
General Wind Power Development Status in China

• Resources availability
• total installation potential is 250 GW, which
  equals the total existing power installation in
  China
• 21 wind farms have been identified
• Installation
• total existing installation was reached 260 MW by
  the end of 1999
• about 200 MW new contracts have been signed,
  which indicated that by the end of 2000, total
  installation will be reached 400 to 500 MW.

3
Current Applicable Technologies

• Equipment
• 80 of them are directly imported with bilateral
  assistance soft loan and without any technologies
  being transferred
• 20 of them with technologies being transferred.
  The transferred technologies are either backward
  technologies, such as phase out products (less
  than 500 kW system) or simple technologies, such
  as tower
• The suppliers mainly come from developed
  countries
• No designed training provided by the equipment
  suppliers
• very fewer local manufactures involved in the
  equipment supplying competition.
• Maintenance
• no enough training provided accompanied by
  equipment supply
• no company can reach the designed technical
  performance.

4
Barriers identification for technologies transfer

• Recipient-side barriers
• Supplier-side barriers
• Financial barriers
• Technical barriers

5
Recipient-side barriers

• Small power market expansion the increased power
  market is only concentrated in China and other
  Asian countries, with 10 to 15 GW per annul
• Wind market grows fast, but the growth rate is
  small 50 to 100 MW per annual in China
• Being lack of long term development targets
• Being lack of clear incentive policies for
  commercialization

6
Supplier-side barriers

• Too many suppliers share the small piece of the
  market (more than 8 countries provide their wind
  equipment to China)
• Government assistance or subsides only applied to
  its own company, which resulted in barriers of
  market competition
• No incentives for technology transfer.

7
Financial barriers

• Bilateral investment
• Which made no choice for user to negotiate for
  technologies transfer, since the donors only
  supply subsides for their own products
• International investment, such as the World Bank
• the equipment procurement procedure excluded any
  assistance for the local producers ( 3 years of
  production , installation and maintenance
  experience required)
• Developer
• Request reliable technologies and low cost, new
  local producers could not compete with the the
  old ones

8
Technical barriers

• the manufacture skills were not provided. the
  supplier usually is a system integrator instead
  of a manufacture
• the local manufacture needs to negotiate with all
  of the component supplier instead of the system
  integrator
• technologies being transferred should include not
  only equipment but also skill and know-how, which
  could not be transferred.

9
Case study one Joint venture company for wind
turbine manufacture

• As a friendship between the two governments,
  instead of commercial based
• As the results of long term corporation (buy 200
  MW with in 5 years)
• foreign side brought the majority of the
  shareholders
• Successful registration in China
• Prototype has been produced
• Looks like a successful case for technologies
  transfer
• but no market, in fact it is a failure case study.

10
The barriers identification from this case

• Technologies transfer without market support
• After successful registration and prototype
  production, the donor still subsides the original
  suppliers in its own country
• The JVC is only transferred the equipment
  manufacture skill, but not transferred the design
  skill, which made the JVC no capability to
  develop the new turbine to meet the market
  requirement
• Lessons learn
• no free lunch available in technologies transfer
• no public owned technologies avaiable in wind
  turbine manufactures
• technologies transfer is not a equipment delivery
  and it should be with the design, maintenance and
  other skill capacity building.

11
Case study two Buy equipment with manufacture
technologies

• Buy 50 MW wind turbines, with system integrated
  design chart
• Successfully installed the 500 MW turbines
• the chart has been transferred
• But no one can produce the turbine with the
  Chart, since the chart without
• any design introduction for the components
• any update skill
• even no integrated design parameters modification
  based on the local situation.

12
What is technology?

• Technology is an idea or a conception
• Technology is equipment
• Technology is know-how
• Technology is a thing, which is always updating
• Technology is innovation capacity and capability
  and
• Technology is all of the above.

13
How to conduct technology transfer under the
UNFCCC

• transfer technologies on concessional terms
• provision of soft loans
• tax incentives for the private technology owners
  to encourage technology transfer instead of
  selling the equipment only.
• provide special fund for training on the grant
  basis
• to help the local entity to master the design
  skill when buying the new technologies or new
  equipment
• to provide training ensuring the maintenance of
  the technology successfully operating
• to enhance the capacity for technology
  development or updating
• to help the local producers getting into the
  high-level international coach for technology R
  D
• To help the local partners to increase their
  creation capability.