中国可再生能源学会风能专业委员会秘书长秦海岩也表示，符合条件的风机规模“总计约有1亿千瓦（1000兆瓦）。”The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration encourage the transformation and upgrading of wind farms that have been connected to the grid for more than 15 years or have a single unit capacity of less than 1.5 megawatts. Industry insiders say that wind farms that meet these conditions have a scale of about 10GW, and starting in 2025, they will experience a peak in wind turbine decommissioning.
On August 21, Cailianshe News (Reporter Xiaolianghua) the Office of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Comprehensive Department of the National Energy Administration issued the Implementation Plan for Large-scale Equipment Update in Energy Key Areas. It encourages the transformation and upgrading of wind farms that have been connected to the grid for more than 15 years or have a single unit capacity of less than 1.5 megawatts in accordance with the requirements of the Measures for the Transformation, Upgrading, and Decommissioning Management of Wind Farms.
Starting in 2023, China's wind power enters a large-scale development stage. However, the initial installed capacity is very small. Roughly estimated, wind farms that meet the above two conditions have a scale of about 10GW (1000 megawatts). Li Caiqiu, an observer in the wind power industry, told Cailianshe News that early wind power technology development was not sufficient, and the installed capacity of a single unit was small. After long-term operation, the power generation efficiency decreased rapidly. Upgrading to new equipment and replacing small units with larger ones can improve efficiency.
Qin Haiyan, Secretary-General of the Wind Energy Professional Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society, also stated that the total scale of wind turbines that meet the conditions is about 0.1 billion kilowatts (1000 megawatts).
The two departments stated that they encourage mainstream industry models with large single-unit capacity and advanced technology to replace existing small-capacity wind turbines. They also support the application of green and low-carbon materials, new high-tower technology, space-saving technology, high-efficiency and intelligent wind turbine units, in order to increase the power generation per unit of land area and promote the development of new forms of wind power industry recycling.
The wave of wind turbine decommissioning is expected to come in the next few years. According to data from the Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA), based on the estimated lifespan of 20 years for onshore wind turbines, it is expected that the first peak of wind turbine decommissioning will occur in 2025-2030 in China. The capacity of decommissioned wind turbines will increase from the current 0.1 million kilowatts to 0.5 million kilowatts in 2025. By 2030, there will be a cumulative total of more than 0.03 million units reaching the decommissioning age, with a decommissioned installed capacity of 44.73 million kilowatts.
In addition, in August of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Circular Utilization of Retired Wind and Photovoltaic Equipment". It proposed that by 2025, the responsibility mechanism for handling retired wind and photovoltaic equipment for centralized wind farms and photovoltaic power plants be basically established, and the relevant standards and specifications for the circular utilization of retired wind and photovoltaic equipment be further improved, and breakthroughs be made in key technologies for resource recycling.
