CCTV9英语新闻：N. China wind turbines face oversupply issues

China made plans last year to combat climate change and bring down dangerous levels of air pollution, by promoting the use of clean energy. But recently the country has halted the expansion of wind power in northern provinces, an action that, on the surface, undermines China's ambition towards low-carbon energy growth.

 

Northern Gansu Province is home to some of China's strongest gales, making the region a perfect place to build wind farms. Many wind turbines are located in Jiuquan city, where the local government has spent tens of billions of yuan on power generation in recent years. But at present, only 60 percent of the city's turbines are in operation.

 

"We're running a company. We have less work when we produce less electricity," Power company employee with Gansu Province said.

 

Power generation in Jiuquan city is now strictly restricted as the region produces more electricity than currently required.

 

"If no restrictions are in place, Jiuquan's turbines can produce 30 gigawatts of electricity, but now we only produce 17 gigawatts," Wu Shengxue, director of Energy Bureau of Jiuquan City, said.

 

Gansu province is not alone in this problem. Six regions in northern China were ordered to suspend new wind projects this year, because the power being churned out by current turbines was being wasted.

 

33.9 billion kilowatt-hours of wind-powered electricity went unused in 2015 alone, around 15 percent of China's total wind power generation.

 

It's no surpise then that many turbines already sit idle.

 

So what went wrong? The National Energy Administration puts the problem down to bad planning.

 

"Local governments were too eager to build and develop wind power projects, but the current rate of construction is higher than that of actual consumption," Shi Lishan, deputy director of New Energy Dep't, Nat'l Energy Administration, said.

 

Shi said, back in 2008, the National Energy Administration approved Gansu government's wind power program under one condition: that the power generated should be consumed in the northwest region.

 

Figures from Gansu Electric Power Company tell us, that in 2015, Gansu province consumed 1,300 kilowatts of power. But wind turbines generated 1,780 kilowatts during the same period of time.

 

And other northwest provinces are in much the same situation, producing more power than what's actually required.

 

But winds of change may already be on the way and Gansu's government is now eyeing markets in east and central China to solve its oversupply issues.