Competitiveness of the wind power industry in China: An analysis based on the extended Diamond Model

Abstract

Over more than 30 years of development, China has become the unquestionable leader in the global wind power industry. Despite the fact that China has outperformed other countries in terms of installed capacity, it currently faces a number of challenges, such as the low utilization rate of onshore wind power and the inability to smoothly connect large-scale wind power to the power grid, which represents the industry's biggest bottleneck. This study employs the extended Diamond Model to examine the competitiveness of China's wind power industry as well as to identify its weaknesses and areas for improvement. The results suggest that digitalization, smart technology, and the Belt and Road initiative have brought new opportunities to China's wind-power producers. China's wind power industry has strong competitiveness in the basic factors of resource endowment, demand, enterprise strategy, related and supporting industry, and government policy support, but it needs to be improved and perfected with regard to market-oriented systems and mechanisms, core technology research and development, grid connection technology, and power grid construction. Then, a series of policy implications have been proposed, which will help China to realize the transition from a “big wind-power producer” to a “strong wind-power producer.”