Emerging Asia to drive growth in wind installations

Wind installations have increased over the last decade across Europe and the US, but emerging markets in Asia will be the key drivers of global growth in wind energy going forward.

The Director of China's Global Wind Energy Council, Ms LiMing Qiao, noted that Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines have been stepping up efforts to develop the wind sector with the introduction of feed-in tariffs and the construction of wind farms. South Korea and Japan also exploring an expansion of wind capacity.

China and Japan, for instance, are the largest Asian participants in the offshore wind market, which has traditionally been dominated by the European countries, with the UK leading the pack with 2,092.7 megawatts (MW) of cumulative installed capacity.

Giving an update on the global wind market, Ms Qiao said that at the end of 2011, 237 gigawatts (GW) of wind capacity had been installed. Global annual installed capacity for 2011 was 40GW, a 6 percent increase from the previous year, with the bulk of installations taking place in Asia, America, Europe and increasingly Latin America. But sluggish US financial markets and the stabilising wind energy market in Asia have meant that the North American market could see a dip, while Asia will plod along steadily, driven by factors and policy concerns such as energy security, cost stability, and climate change.

Ramon Terrones, Regional Director for APAC and Oceania of Gamesa Singapore, a wind energy technology company, noted that Asia can learn from Europe's roadmap. Asia's installed capacity per capita is roughly 12 years behind Europe, largely because challenges exist in the bid to boost wind installations.

Europe had also experienced similar challenges, for instance, the availability of wind resources, an appropriate regulatory mechanism, utilities and grid constraints, difficulties in site selection and approval, and securing sufficient financing and investment. 

Terrones was of the view that Asian governments should provide financial support for the development of detailed wind resource maps in order to identify availability of wind resource. In terms of European regulatory mechanism, feed-in tariffs have proven to be the most effective mechanism. He observed that it is necessary to upgrade and strengthen power grids to absorb variable output of wind energy, or even consider interconnectivity of national grids.

Dr Ellen Liu, APAC Technical Director of GE Renewables, briefly touched on Asia's high growth potential, which would require stable and transparent policy and efforts to overcome unique technical challenges. The importance of a strong hardware support industry, as well as operational and maintenance roles, should not be overlooked, she said.

By :By Tan Teck Hao, EMA