Wind Energy

Sinovel’s first 5-megawatt wind turbine debuts

Sinovel Wind Group Company, the largest wind energy generator manufacturer in China, officially announced on Oct. 13 that they have completed production of an independently-developed 5-megawatt wind turbine has independently-owned intellectual property rights.

This is China’s first 5-megawatt wind turbine. In addition, the research and development of a 6-megawatt wind power generator is progressing smoothly, and production will begin in the first half of 2011.

With the development of China’s wind energy industry — especially the launch of offshore wind farm concession projects — it is inevitable that wind turbines capable of producing 3 megawatts or more will become the standard nationwide. The development of 5 megawatt and above wind turbines are also a high-level manufacturing field in the world.

An official at Sinovel said that with the development of large wind turbines in China and the world, more efficient and more powerful units capable of producing 5 megawatts or more will certainly become the mainstream of the next generation and are widely used in land, on sea and in the intertidal zones as well as in different wind fields.

Following the production of the 5-megawatt generators, Sinovel will continue to research and develop the wind turbines with even higher power.

Tao Gang, vice general manager of Sinovel, said that at the invitation to bid for offshore wind power projects involving 1 million kilowatts of power held by the National Energy Bureau, Sinovel won 60 percent of the share, including two coastal wind farm projects in Binhai and Sheyang counties in Jiangsu Province, totaling 600,000 kilowatts.

The country’s top three wind turbines manufacturers – Sinovel, Goldwind and Dongfang Electric – control about 60 percent of the country’s market share, NDRC Energy Research Institute Researcher Gao Hu said.

The cumulative installation of China’s wind power industry is expected to surpass that of the United States by year-end, Global Wind Energy Council Secretary-General Steve Sawyer said.

The country’s offshore wind power sector has more exploitable resources than the inland sector. Fujian, Shandong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, and Shanghai municipality are planning to install 32,800 megawatts of offshore wind power capacity by year-end, the China Wind Power Outlook report said.

www.sinovel.com/