Renewable energy, cheapest energy source for Asians
BEIJING, China – Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power will become the cheapest energy for consumers in Asia in next 10 years, scientists say.
A joint project conducted by Finnish Technical Research Centre (VTT), the Lappeenranta University of Technology and the University of Turku has successfully modelled a comprehensive energy systems based entirely on renewable energy sources for China, South Korea and Japan. Industry insiders said that China, which has significant wind and solar energy resource, is also the world’s largest investor in solar and wind energy.
Researchers predict that the price of solar electricity will drop by half within 10 or 15 years, so that the relative industries will become more profitable.
On a related report, research firm GlobalData , in its recently released Global Wind Turbine Value Chain – Production, Market Share, Competitive Landscape and Market Size to 2020, cites that more blades are being outsourced than are being produced in-house, Asian tower manufacturers pose threat to American counterparts and Europe as well as Asia-Pacific combined generate more than 90% of global wind-power generators.
Meanwhile, the global wind farm operations and maintenance (O&M) market size is forecast to reach US$9.84 billion in 2016, with China contributing US$1.77 billion, or 18% of global market, according to another report by Research and Markets, China Wind Farm Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Industry Report, 2014-2016. It indicated that Europe, the world’s largest wind farm O&M market and the first to develop such business, takes up more than 50% of global wind farm O&M market. In 2013, German wind farm O&M market equalled to EUR 1.2 billion, or 44% of entire European market, followed by Spain (28%) and Britain (13%). The expansion of Western European wind farm O&M market will be propped up mainly by offshore wind farms in Germany, Britain and Italy; Poland will stand out from the emerging Eastern European wind farm O&M markets with significant growth.
As China started wind farm construction on a large scale from 2009, most of wind turbines have come out of warranty from about 2012. The number of wind turbines coming out of warranty stood at 6,769 in 2013, and is expected to total 12,182 in 2014. A surge in the number of wind turbines out of warranty period will greatly promote the development of the Chinese wind farm O&M market, which saw an annual average growth rate of 142%, and is expected to be worth about US$ 1.4 billion in 2014.
At present, competitors in the Chinese wind farm O&M market can be divided into three main types: wind turbine manufacturers, wind farm developers and third party O&M companies.
