New Round of Wind Power Projects Soliciting Bids

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A new round of wind power concession projects opened for bidding on April 10, according to China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). This marks the first such bidding event since NDRC issued its new regulation on wind power pricing in January, and the fourth since the country initiated a public tendering process to issue wind concessions in 2003.

This latest round of concessions involves three wind energy projects in northern China, including two wind farms in Inner Mongolia and one in Hebei Province, with a combined installed capacity of 700 megawatts. For the first time ever, wind turbine manufacturers are invited to participate directly in the bidding process. Manufacturers can submit their bids either individually or jointly with an investor and must provide detailed plans for domestic manufacture as well as concrete measures to fulfill their plans.

Over the past three years, China has issued eight wind concession projects through its public bidding process. The first, in 2003, was won by a private real estate company, but all remaining bids went to state-owned power giants, with the winning bid ranging from 4.6 to 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, a price experts have considered “suicidally” low.

By making domestic development of turbine manufacturing one of the major criteria for selecting bidders and winners, this new round of concessions aims to nurture China’s local wind power industry and to speed the transfer of advanced technology by international turbine manufacturers and designers. In 2005, major international wind turbine giants, such as Vestas of Denmark, Gamesa of Spain, India’s Suzlon, and Germany’s Nordex, accounted for 77 percent of China’s installed turbine market.

Potential bidders will visit the wind farm sites in early May, and the tendering process will open officially on August 16. The final winner will be chosen in mid-September.