General Electric has created another wind energy joint venture in China, this time with Harbin Electric Machinery Company to manufacture and supply turbines for China’s booming $13 billion wind industry and promote its direct-drive technology.
Harbin Electric, a subsidiary of Harbin Power Equipment Company, will own 51 percent of the new company which will produce G.E.-designed wind turbines for near-shore and offshore use.
Harbin will also acquire 49 percent of G.E.’s existing Shenyang wind energy factory, which will continue producing onshore wind turbines.
“This is an important investment in China for G.E. and one that will enable us to participate in the tremendous growth potential of the Chinese wind turbine segment,” said Jack Wen, president and chief executive of G.E. Energy China.
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China, currently the world’s No. 1 wind turbine buyer, is expected to grow its wind power capacity by 500 percent in 2020. G.E. cited the country’s tremendous growth in installed wind capacity, from 12.2 gigawatts in 2008 to 25.8 GW by the end of last year. By 2020, China is expected to have about 150,000 megawatts of wind energy.
G.E. also drew attention to China’s electricity demand, which has been growing at a rate of 12 percent per year, and the government’s renewable energy policies. China aims to supply 20 percent of its national power consumption from renewable energy by 2020.
G.E. will promote its direct-drive wind turbine technology for offshore wind turbines in China. The design eliminates the use of gearboxes and replaces it with low-speed generators, which significantly reduce the generator’s weight and boost turbine reliability and efficiency.
G.E. will also take over customer and sales support, as well as commissioning and maintenance services.
“By teaming up with Harbin, G.E. can deliver our advanced wind power solutions to our local customers in China to help meet the country’s need for cleaner energy,” Mr. Wen said.
About a year ago, a unit of G.E. Transportation signed a joint venture with Chongqing XinXing Gear Company that would produce large-diameter gears for the wind industry.
However, early this month, the United Steelworkers Union filed a free trade complaint against China for allegedly using illegal practices to advance its own green sector, such as blocking foreign access to critical renewable energy raw materials; granting subsidies to boost domestic over imported goods; and requiring foreign companies to divulge technology secrets to the detriment of the United States’ own wind industry.
G.E. boasts of a wind portfolio that includes 14,000 wind turbines installed worldwide with over 21 GW of capacity. In China alone, the company said it has supplied over 935 wind turbines. The company’s energy sector earned $37 billion in revenues worldwide in 2009.
Harbin Electric, one of China’s leading power equipment enterprises, has the biggest production and export base for power generation equipment, including equipment for wind, biogas and tidal. It has provided over 40 percent of the hydropower units and one-third of the total thermal generators in China.
