Energy Systems and Technologies for the Coming Century ...

technology transfer started from 20% and gradually increased to 80%Government enters into international technology cooperationon wind, and encouraging the set up of joint ventures bymultinational wind turbine manufacturersCustoms Duties and ImportTariffsLocal content requirementsSpecial fund for winddevelopment and special fundfor wind technologylocalisationImport tariff exemption (1990-1995)1996 onwards: more favourable tariff on component importthan whole turbine import, lower duty on high-techcomponent importEspecially for large projects tendering by the NationalDevelopment Commission, min. 40% LCR requirements in2003, min. 70% LCR 2005 to 2009Subsidies, grants, and low interest loans for wind energyprojects and Chinese wind turbine manufacturersSource: Howell et al, 2010In fact, from 2005 to 2009, China has a rule that wind power projects in China haveto use wind turbines with a minimum local content of 70%. Some US and Europeanwind power equipment manufacturers find the Chinese market so important that theyprefer to quietly follow the Chinese rules than complaining to their governments andresort to trade disputes. Many foreign companies circumvent the rules by setting upfactories and joint ventures in China. Gemesa, a leading wind power manufacturerfrom Spain, helped Chinese enterprises set up wind turbine component producingfacilities and its engineers trained the local component suppliers. The 70% localrequirements were dropped in 2009, by the time the localisation policy was sosuccessful that the local content rate of some of the foreign wind turbine producers’turbines sold in China had reached 95% and foreign producers began to supply theirmarket outside China with components supplied from China (New York Times, Jan30, 2010).IV. Renewable energy development – subsidies, job creation, andmanufacturing capacity building and technology competitiveness4.1 Renewable energy developmentIn the last few years, investments in various renewable energy have been growing atfast speed, especially solar PV, biofuel, and wind capacity have been increasingquickly. In 2010 (World Economic Forum, 2010), the global investments in solarpower and wind power grew by 49% and 31% respectively despite the economicdifficulties caused by the recent global economic and financial crisis. The worldinvestment in clean energy grew from the 186 billion USD in 2009 to 243 billion USDin 2010, for the first time approaching half of the 500 billion USD per year investmentindicated by the IPCC as necessary for peaking the global greenhouse gasemissions by 2020.Figure 4. Average renewable energygrowth speed, end-2004 to 2009Figure 5. Global electricity generationfrom different sourcesRisø International Energy Conference 2011 Proceedings Page 98