The news cycle for China’s wind sector may finally have turned, according to the new China Wind Market Quarterly report by GTM Research and Azure International. The final month of 2012 and first weeks of 2013 brought a flurry of government announcements with major near-term implications. In December, the government took steps to resolve financing issues in the sector by redistributing surcharge revenues and pre-appropriating funds for 2013. And in January two separate announcements raised targets for wind and solar installations in 2013, setting an overall target of 49 gigawatts of renewable capacity additions in 2013, of which 18 gigawatts will be wind.

The government appears to be back in the game of promoting the domestic renewable energy market, with government policy in China beginning to act as a counterweight to foreign forces that have hurt the wind and solar sectors. According to the new report, this implies that more announcements may be on the way for wind. One near-term possibility is improved financing. How will all the new solar be financed, given the problems distributing renewable surcharges? Most likely, the state banking sector will play a major role, and this could bring new cash to the balance sheets of Chinese wind firms -- which would in turn filter down to OEMs and component suppliers.

FIGURE: China Installed Wind Capacity, 2004-2012, Forecast to 2020



Source: China Wind Market Quarterly: 4th Quarter 2012

“China’s wind industry retains its leadership position worldwide, whether looking at policy targets, overall installation numbers or innovation,” said Anders Hove, one of the report’s authors. “Fully understanding the world’s largest wind energy market requires an in-depth understanding of complex issues, and that’s why this report is timely. We need to understand the reasons for interconnection delays, develop an expectation for future curtailment, and look province by province at the cash flow issues created by slow disbursement of renewable energy surcharge funds.”

Today, GTM Research and Azure International publish the second installment of their China Wind Market Quarterly report. This 90-page report provides the latest information on developments in China’s wind market as well as analysis of:

Wind capacity by manufacturer

Wind capacity by developer

Wind capacity by geography

Curtailed wind power in China by geography

China’s wind policies

Major wind company financial trends

The report also contains comprehensive analyses of over ten major wind developers currently operating in China, including: Longyuan, Huaneng, Datang, Guodian, Shenhua and Huadian, among others.

The China Wind Market Quarterly is the wind industry’s most in-depth and frequently updated resource, providing energy professionals with tactical and useful data and analysis of China’s wind market. To learn more about this new report or subscribe to this annual report series, please visit http://www.greentechmedia.com/research/china-wind-market-quarterly.