Alternatives to coal and candles: wind power in China

China is in a unique position to be able to exploit her vast wind resources to satisfy both the rapidly growing energy demand which fuels her economy as well as needs of approximately 72 million people who live in rural areas and have no access to conventional electricity services. China, mainly through the efforts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has already successfully disseminated over 150,000 small-scale wind electric generators which power households in rural areas, through a well-coordinated combination of local research and development, technology transfer, industry support, end-user incentives, and an infrastructure for information dissemination and technical training. In this paper, we review China's utilization of wind energy and discuss how it can be increased for both rural electrification and the rapidly growing power sector. We find that novel approaches in technical implementation of wind power use may help to better meet China's needs. Use of hybrid systems may help to provide higher quality, more reliable power for rural households and villages than is currently provided through wind-only systems. Grid-connected wind power, which currently is more costly and less reliable than coal power, can become cost-competitive and more reliable through local, mass production of wind turbines combined with storage systems. We examine governmental support, through policy, infrastructure development and financial incentives, that have fostered the successes of dissemination of small-scale wind turbines and also the support, or lack thereof, that has hindered commercial development of large-scale wind power. We find that a better policy and regulatory framework is the most important measure that China can take to increase the use of this indigenous, clean resource. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.