The technical efficiency of China's wind power list enterprises: An estimation based on DEA method and micro-data

Abstract

Abstract Promoting wind power is a long-term strategy of China to respond to both energy shortage and environmental pollution. Stimulated by various incentive policies, wind power generation in China has achieved tremendous growth. However, the China's wind power industry is still in its early development stage and various problems have emerged, seriously challenging the healthy functioning of the industry. Based on micro-data on wind power listed companies, the four-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is used to measure the technical efficiency of China's wind power enterprises and sketch the development of the wind power industry at the micro level. The results show that there exist non-efficiency problems arising from the diseconomies of scale in China's wind power industry during 2011–2015. The average value of the efficiency of wind power enterprises is 32.5%. According to the subsample analysis, large-scale enterprises, private-owned enterprises and enterprises taking wind farm conduction and operation as their main business, as well as enterprises located in the three northern area, have the highest efficiency in their respective categories. Drawn on this analysis, conclusions and policy implications are provided at the end of the paper.