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Wind Power News: China
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Files trace betrayal of a prized China-Mass. partnership
On a Thursday evening three Junes ago, Dejan Karabasevic desperately needed to contact his former wife. Karabasevic, a top engineer in American Superconductor Corp.’s offices in Klagenfurt, Austria, had been summoned to work, then confronted by police, who suspected him of selling his company’s proprietary software to a Chinese wind turbine maker. The questioning lasted past midnight. When he finally reached his former wife, he instructed her to delete all the e-mails in his Google account. But authorities stopped her . . . Complete story »
US DOJ indicts Fairhaven turbine manufacturer
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a Chinese turbine manufacturer with stealing patented software from an American company for use in turbines erected in Fairhaven and three other Massachusetts towns. The DOJ charged Sinovel Wind Group Thursday with stealing trade secrets from AMSC (American Superconductor), a Massachusetts-based company, and causing an alleged loss of more than $800 million to the company. The software in question helps regulate the electricity flowing from a turbine into the electrical grid. According to . . . Complete story »
Goldwind staff counts falls 24% over 2012
CHINA: The number of Goldwind staff dropped by 24% over the course of 2012, taking its current headcount to to 3,558. A large proportion of Goldwind’s order pipleline is for its 2.5MW turbine (pictured) A large proportion of Goldwind’s order pipleline is for its 2.5MW turbine (pictured) The staff leaving Goldwind included vice-president Guo Jian, chief engineer Cui Weixin, and board directors Lu Houjun and Gao Zhong. In its 2012 figures, Goldwind revealed it made only CNY 153 million ($24 . . . Complete story »
Ralls sues to void U.S. wind-farm purchase Obama blocked
Ralls Corp., the Chinese-owned company blocked on national security grounds from operating wind turbines near a U.S. Navy base in Oregon, asked a judge to void its agreement to buy assets for the project. President Barack Obama’s order blocking development of the wind project nullifies Ralls’s acquisition of the project’s property from Terna Energy Holding USA Corp., Ralls said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Washington against a Delaware-incorporated unit of Terna Energy SA, a Greek energy . . . Complete story »
Ming Yang turbine collapse kills one, injures three
A Ming Yang 1.5MW wind turbine collapsed in the course of commissioning, killing one and injuring three, on September 5 in northwest China’s Xinjiang province. The 66/1500 turbine toppled down in a Huaneng wind farm in Tuokexun county, eastern Xinjiang. Ming Yang said that according to preliminary analysis, the tower fell because the foundation bolts were not properly fastened in the course of turbine installation. This was exacerbated by the class I winds at the location. The company said management . . . Complete story »
Official sidelined for fining wetlands wind developer
China Guodian Group last month escaped a CNY 5.59 million ($879,639) fine for building a wind farm in a protected wetland, with the official who imposed the penalty removed from his post. The utility’s Hefeng Wind Power Development subsidiary was originally hit with the fine in June after a swan was killed flying into its Linghai wind farm in Liaoning province. Linghai municipal forestry bureau, which issued the fine, said Guodian Hefeng had built the wind farm in the Linghekou . . . Complete story »
Wind power being wasted
About 16 percent of the electricity generated by wind farms in northern China went unused in 2011, causing a loss of 6.6 billion yuan ($1.03 billion), the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) said Thursday. Unused wind-generated electricity amounted to 12.3 billion kilowatt-hours in northern China’s wind farms in 2011, SERC said in a report. The wastage in wind power was caused by several factors, such as power grid upgrades that have lagged behind the expansion of wind farms, insufficient transmission . . . Complete story »
Guodian fined $600,000 for constructing wind farm in bird sanctuary
Guodian subsidiary Hefeng Wind Power Development, has been fined CNY 3.8 million ($603,174) for constructing a 20-turbine wind farm in a wetland that threatens the safety of birds. The company has been fined by the forestry administration of Linghai city, in northeast China’s Liaoning province. In March, a swan was killed at the wind farm, which was constructed in 2007. The wetland, a municipal level natural reserve stretching 80,000 hectares, is home to 1,024 species of wild fauna and flora, . . . Complete story »
Vestas shuts Chinese turbine plant as demand cools
Vestas, the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer, is closing a factory in China with the loss of up to 350 jobs, it said on Monday, just three days after scrapping plans for a factory in Britain as demand slides. Once a darling of investors, the renewable energy sector is struggling in the global economic slowdown as support for wind power and other renewable sources has been hit by government spending cuts and a downgrading of growth prospects. Earlier this month, . . . Complete story »
Experts warn on China’s “reckless” wind power expansion
China plans to expand its offshore wind power installed capacity to 5 gigawatts by 2015 and 30 gigawats by 2020. The goal for the whole of Europe over the same period is 40 gigawatts, and 10 gigawatts for the U.S. Hebei province recently approved an offshore wind power project, China’s third, which will have totalled installed capacity of 560 megawatts. The two existing projects are the 102-megawatt Donghai Bridge Wind Power project in Shanghai and the Rudong Offshore Intertidal Zone . . . Complete story »
