Preliminary Evaluation On The Geographic Distribution Of Wind Energy Resources And Its Development And Utilization In China

Under the "new normal", energy revolution has become an important content of the economic growth mode transformation in China, the purpose of energy development is not simple to provide important support for economic development. The social, economic and environmental benefits brought about by energy development will also bring more direct influences on the economic development of China. So far, the bearing capacity of China’s energy resources and ecological environment has reached or closed to its upper limit, speeding up to promote energy revolution and speeding up clean energy and renewable energy to replace the conventional energy are imminent.Wind energy resources, as a kind of clean renewable energy, is very rich in China. As the most efficient utilization form of wind energy resources, wind power has become one important foundation of achieving China’s sustainable development, so its development prospects are very broad. Based on a large number of literature researches and basic data, combining with geography space analysis and measurement analysis method, firstly, this paper briefly introduced the wind energy resources and its utilization, and then analyzed the status in the development of renewable energy, reserves assessment, spatial distribution and difference of wind energy resource. At last, we found out China’s wind energy resources development potential and the main areas of the development of wind power, then analyzed and discussed the present situation of development and utilization, geographical distribution, regional differences and time and space changes of China’s wind power. Then, according to the space dislocations of wind power production areas and load centers of electricity, this paper discussed the future consumptive market and transportation pattern of China’s wind power, and finally elaborated the problems and opportunities faced by China’s wind power development, and put forward some policy recommendations of further optimization of wind power utilization and cleared the development direction of wind power. Main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1) The wind energy resources in China is very rich, and its potential development is enormous. The potential development capacity of wind energy resource of level 3 and above is about 2.568～3.988 billion kilowatt. Therefore, wind energy resources development potential is tremendous, China have the conditions to develop on a large scale and wind energy resources also extremely has the potential to become one of nation’s leading energy in the future.(2) The geographical distribution of China’s wind energy resources is uneven, its overall pattern is "more in the north and less in the south, more in the coastal and less in the inland". At the regional level, the "three north" is the most abundant region of wind energy resources. In the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) level, both the theory reserves and the exploitable reserves of Inner Mongolia are the most in China.(3) From the perspective of current wind power development and utilization, China’s wind power development is very fast, and China has become the biggest country of wind power in world. In China, wind power also has become main electricity sources only after thermal power and hydro power. Compared to many European and American countries of wind power, the development level still exists a large gap, the ratio of wind power in power structure is still small. In spite of this, the status of wind power in China’s energy structure has gone far beyond other non-hydro power renewable energy resources.(4) From the view of the geographical distribution, wind power has already spread over all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China, but the distribution of development size is uneven, regional differences are fairly obvious, and the distribution seriously don’t match with the load centers of electricity. Inner Mongolia is the largest area in size of the development of wind power in China, and far more than Hebei. The distribution of wind power development and production are obvious consistent with the theoretical distribution of wind energy resources, show that the richness of wind energy resources determines the layout of the wind power development to a large extent.(5) The wind energy resources and hydro power resources can be complementary. At the seasonal level, large-scale development of wind power can make up for the lack of hydroelectric power in dry seasons to some extent. At the regional level, through building electricity transmission channels between areas, the wind power in northwest and north and the hydro power in southwest can realize regional complementary intermodulation.(6) China’s center of gravity of wind power development and production showed serious dislocation between areas with the center of gravity of power load. The center of gravity of wind power development is gradually close to that of the theoretical reserves of wind energy resource. The center of gravity of wind power development and production are almost consistent, but there’s still a small displacement. Both wind power development’s and wind power production’s center of gravity show serious regional dislocation with the center of gravity of power load.(7) Wind power integration and consumption are the main problems faced by the development of wind power in China. In order to achieve the optimal allocation of wind power resources across China, the future consumption market of large wind power, in addition to base on the consumption of local area and the provinces within the power grid, but also need to consume in provinces with different grids.(8) In order to promote sound and fast development and utilization of wind power in China, thus promote the sustainable development of new energy and renewable energy to ensure the security of China’s energy and environment, Chinese government and relevant organizations and enterprises must strengthen the innovation of technology and management system, improve relevant policies and mechanisms and formulate reasonable and orderly development strategies of wind power.