Clean Energy

Opportunities and Challenges of Clean Energy Development in China

Wenliang Zhang, Weisheng Wang, Yuehui Huang, Yiguo Jiang

China Electric Power Research Institute

Introduction1

Planning of Clean Energy in Chinese Power System2

3 Experience and Main Challenges

1

4 Potential Solutions of Large Scale Intermittent Energy Integration

5 Conclusions

Environment and climate have forced the energy supply and energy consumption must be transited into renewable and sustainable pattern to continue the life of earth.

Our target is that the share of non-fossil fuels in the primary energy consumption will reach to 15% in 2020.

In the next decades, clean energy, such as hydro power, nuclear power, wind power, and later solar power, will take big roles in Chinese power system.

However, the grid are not ready for the large-scale, highly concentrated, intermittent wind power and solar power.

Introduction1

Planning of Clean Energy in Chinese Power System2

3 Experience and Main Challenges

1

4 Potential Solutions of Large Scale Intermittent Energy Integration

5 Conclusions

2009 2020 2030Hydro 183 320-350 360-430

Nuclear 9.08 72-80 150-160

Wind 16.1 100-150 200-300

Solar <0.2 20 60-70

Table I 2030 planning of clean energy (GW)

From 2010 – 2020, hydro power, nuclear power, wind power will be the focus and solar power will be the compensation.

After 2020, solar power generation will also be widely used for its acceptable cost.

Installed hydro power distribution at the end of 2009. (Unit: MW)

Be rich of hydro power resource, in the top one place of the world. The potential hydro power generation capacity: 524GW, annual

production 2470TWh. The west is richer than the east. The potential of southwest accounts for

66.7% of the country. At the end of 2009, the total

installation is 183GW (pumped hydro not included),only 34% of the reserves.

In 2020, the installation will reach to 320-350GW, and 430GW in 2030.

The reserves of uranium are over 200 million ton in China. However, at the end of 2009, the installed nuclear power capacity is only

9.08GW. The possible sites for nuclear power installation is about 300-400GW. To reach the goal of 2020, the installation of nuclear power should be

72-80GW, with a total contribution of 30% of clean energy production. For limitation of other resources along the east coast, the nuclear power

should be the main new installation in these areas.

Wind resources are concentrated on three areas: north areas (north China, northwest, northeast), near coast areas, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau areas.

Both onshore and offshore consideration. Before 2020, the focus is onshore wind farms, with some offshore pilot projects. After 2020, focus will move to offshore.

Wind resource distribution in China

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Annual and total installed wind power from 1999-2008 (10*MW).

The installation increased rapidly, annually doubled from 2006 to 2009. At the end of 2009, the installation is 16.1GW.

In 2020, the installation will reach to 100GW-150GW and 200-300GW in 2030, mainly concentrated on the seven large wind bases.

Attractive price to encourage wind power. Feed-in tariff is based on the resources, from 0.51RMB/kWh to 0.61RMB/kWh.

The distribution of seven large wind bases

Potential installation capacity (Unit: MW)

Solar resource distribution in China (kWh/m2)

Solar resources are rich. The north is better than

the south. The west is better than the east.

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau areas, Gansu, north of Ningxia, south of Xinjiang, Mengxi are the most rich areas, with annual sunshine over 3000h.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1990 1995 2000 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

0.5 1.55 3.3

20.310 5 10

20

40

1.78 6.6319

45

65 7080

100

140

Annual(MWp) Total(MWp)

year

Inst

alle

d ca

paci

ty(M

Wp)

Annual and total installed PV capacity from 1990-2008.

The solar power installation is very small for its high cost and low efficiency at present.

At the end of 2008, the total installation of PV is only 140MW. Most of them are isolated systems.

Before 2020, solar power generation is mainly in the pilot project stage. After 2020, solar power will be expanded widely.

In the long roadmap, in 2020, the installation will reach to 20GW and 60-70GW in 2030.

Large-scale grid-integrated stations will be populated after 2020, with capacity over 10MW for each in northwest desert.

Introduction1

Planning of Clean Energy in Chinese Power System2

3 Experience and Main Challenges

1

4 Potential Solutions of Large Scale Intermittent Energy Integration

5 Conclusions

Long distance transmission

Most of the resources are concentrated on the west and northwest areas. However, the load center is located at the east coast.

The limited transmission capability has be the bottleneck of large-scale development of wind power and hydro power in the west.

Load Following

The operation of the system has to change a lot to accommodate the fluctuant power supplies.

The inherent composition of the power supplies in the system limit the flexibility of the system. Over 70% of the installation is coal powered plants in Chinese power system.

Coal602.8676%

Hydro172.622%

Nuclear8.851%

Wind8.391%

GW

GW

GW

GW

Installation composition at the end of 2008

Voltage control & reactive power

With the increase of output power of the wind farm, the loss of the transmission lines increases, especially for long transmission line at remote areas.

The voltage level of the bus line decreases if the plant can not provide enough reactive power supply.

0 2 4 6 8 10210

215

220

225

230

235

Vol

tage

kV

（）

7:40 7:50 8:00 8:10 8:20 8:30

Voltage variation of a bus line

Frequency control

The output of wind farms can not droop with the increase of system frequency automatically. For sudden decreasing of much power, the frequency may be unstable.

Most of the wind turbines without low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability. A mass of wind turbines will cut off under fault conditions.

Standardization and authentication

The technical rules should update with the wind power technology and installation scale. Some of the troubles will be released with proper requirements of wind farms.

The authentication and certification is also necessary to ensure the compliance between the grid and the farms.

Introduction1

Planning of Clean Energy in Chinese Power System2

3 Experience and Main Challenges

1

4 Potential Solutions of Large Scale Intermittent Energy Integration

5 Conclusions

R&D standards development

The expected wind farms are controllable, predictable, dispatchable.

The updated national standard for wind power integration will be available soon. Other related standards are under revision and/or formulation.

Strengthen grid & Smart grid

By strengthen the connection of provincial grids, the wind power can be balanced in a large area. The constructed ultra-high voltage grid will definitely play big roles on interregional transmission.

The smart grid is very important for renewable energy integration.

Storage & flexible power supplies

Various energy storage methods can be used to balance the fluctuation of renewable energy.

Using pumped hydro system to release load following pressures.

Using storage system to control the active power of wind farms to some extend.

Using electrical vehicle to increase the flexibility of the system.

Fast response power supplies, like gas powered plant, will be planned as well as wind power.

Introduction1

Planning of Clean Energy in Chinese Power System2

3 Experience and Main Challenges

1

4 Potential Solutions of Large Scale Intermittent Energy Integration

5 Conclusions

The clean energy will be the mainstream for newly installed plants in the next decades. The impact of increasing of wind power will be significant, which brings big challenges to Chinese grid.

The load following, voltage dip and mass wind turbines cutting out are occurred in our experience. Transmission limitation and other challenges are faced with large-scale wind power integration.

To release the troubles, more strict integration requirements will be put on the wind farms. The wind farms should be as controllable, predictable and dispatchable as conventional plants for significant penetration.

Also, the grid needs to be updated to connect more wind power. Moreover, the system should be very flexible to accommodate the quick fluctuation of wind power.

Thank you for your attention!