Wind Power Overview

The utilization methods for wind power mainly have two classes. One is the independently operated power supply system, which is to utilize the small-sized wind power generation sets with the single capacity ranging from 100W to 10kW to charge the storage battery and then convert into ac by inverter to supply power to the end-user in the remote areas where electricity grid haven¡¯t been connected so far, for example, high mountains, grass lands or islands; or the hybrid power supply system to employ the medium-scale wind generator with diesel generator or PV solar cells, of which current single capacity is 10kW to 200kW, contributing to the electricity demands on small community. Another method is to connect to the conventional grid, of which the single capacity for commercialized sets is 150kW to 1650kW contributing not only to independently connect to the grid, but also to form the wind power field by multi sets or thousands of sets. Due to the fact that clusters of wind sets look like the crops in the rice field, it is also called wind field in foreign countries.

From the early of the 1980s, China took the wind generation as the measure to realize the electrification in rural areas, mainly researching, developing, and demonstrating the applications of small-sized wind generator used for charge and supplied for herdsman and fisher folk to each household. Under the development of more than 10 years, the technology for generator sets below 1 kW has been mature. After being popularized in large amount, an annual production capacity of 10,000 sets has been formed. Now 6000 to 8000 sets can be sold out in a year, among which hundreds of sets are for exporting. China is in a possession of about 160,000 sets so far, ranking the first in the world. In the remote areas where the grid cannot be stroked to, it is not a rare indeed that about 600,000 populations can realize the electrification due to the utilization of wind energy. Electric lamp and TV have come into the households of peasants and herdsman making their living standard obviously increased.

The grid-connected generation has come to the most economic method to large-scale utilize the wind energy. As the development of technologies and expanding of scale, the cost of wind power is likely to decline continuously; on the contrary, the production for conventional power plants combusted by fossil fuels is inevitably to be incremented as the decline of resources and increased awareness of environment. In order to meliorate the electricity structure, the former electricity department made an unambiguously defined decision in 1993 to step up the industrialization process of wind power, initiating to large-scale develop wind power so as to make the clean wind energy as a critical component on sustainable energy in the 21^st century.