Chinese Wind Power Research Articles

Industrial policy and digital transformation of the Chinese wind power sector: the role of financial constraint and resource bricolage

Industrial policy and digital transformation of the Chinese wind power sector: the role of financial constraint and resource bricolage

Digital technology adoption and radical and incremental innovations: evidence from the Chinese wind power industry

PurposeDigital technologies open up unprecedented opportunities for the Chinese wind power industry to make rapid and comprehensive decisions. However, the relationship between digital technology adoption and radical and incremental innovations has not been empirically assessed. In addition, reconfiguration capability is the ability of firms to transform and respond to changes. How such an organizational capability influences the effectiveness of digital technology adoption is a black box. In response, this study aims to assess the relationship between digital technology adoption and radical and incremental innovations in the Chinese wind power industry and elucidate the moderating role of reconfiguration capability.Design/methodology/approachBased on the data of listed companies in the Chinese wind power industry from 2006 to 2020, this study constructs regression models and validates the hypotheses.FindingsThe correlation between digital technology adoption and incremental innovation in the wind power industry in China is significantly positive, but the relationship between digital technology adoption and radical innovation is not significant. In addition, reconfiguration capability significantly enhances the incentive effect of digital technology adoption on incremental innovation.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the earliest to explore the heterogeneous relationships between digital technology adoption and radical and incremental innovations in emerging economies, advancing the theoretical insights into how digital transformation can foster different categories of technological innovations. Moreover, this study embeds dynamic capability theory into digital transformation research by exploring the boundary conditions for the effectiveness of digital technology adoption from the perspective of organizational dynamic capability, thereby expanding the boundaries of existing knowledge.

Digitalization and productivity in the Chinese wind power industry: the serial mediating role of reconfiguration capability and technological innovation

PurposeWind power is the most promising renewable energy source in China. The development of digital technologies has brought about unprecedented growth opportunities and prospects for wind power. However, the relationship between digital technology adoption and total factor productivity (TFP) in the wind power industry in China has not been empirically assessed. This study aims to clarify whether and how digital technology adoption affects the TFP of the wind power industry in China.Design/methodology/approachBased on the data of listed companies in the Chinese wind power industry from 2006 to 2021, this study proposes and verifies relevant hypotheses with two-way fixed effects regression models.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that digital technology adoption is the cornerstone of the TFP of China’s wind power industry. Reconfiguration capability and technological innovation serially mediate the above relationship. In addition, the incentive effect of digital technology adoption varies among wind power firms. The impact of digital technology adoption is more significant in firms that are old and located in economically undeveloped regions.Originality/valueThis study is one of the earliest attempts to investigate the relationship between digital technology adoption and TFP in the renewable energy sectors of emerging economies. By integrating dynamic capability theory and the analytical framework of “Capability-Behavior-Performance” into the digital context, this study offers the theoretical insights into how digital technology adoption can enhance organizational reconfiguration capability, thereby stimulating technological innovation and subsequent TFP. Additionally, the impacts of different digital technologies are estimated in entirety, rather than in isolation.

Research on Alternative Relationship between Chinese Renewable Energy and Imported Coal for China

The issue of energy security in the new development paradigm featuring dual circulation has been paid attention to by all sectors, but at present, there are few results from relevant quantitative analyses. With a focus on China’s actual energy trade, this research examines the core elements of energy security in international and Chinese cycles. In this context, the “gravity model” and “Allen substitution elasticity” are optimized and expanded. An integrated assessment methodology is developed as a result of this effort. This methodology consists of an international-cycle trade gravity model and a Chinese-cycle price elasticity model. Additionally, it empirically analyzes the effects of China’s renewable energy substitution from the perspective of the “dual cycles” of energy security, and illustrates the current state of China’s energy security through the analysis of energy substitution relationship data. The results show that Chinese renewable energy does have a buffer effect on imported coal in terms of trade efficiency, scale, and behavior, as well as performance, and the energy trade price has a direct guiding significance for this buffer function, but the enhancement function of economy-driven efficiency is indirect. Furthermore, as far as the absolute price elasticity and net price elasticity are concerned, although Chinese wind power generation is a substitute for imported coal, its price elasticity also confirms that Chinese wind power generation is not a “normal commodity”. Moreover, at present, Chinese photovoltaic power generation shows the attribute of a “normal commodity”, but it has a certain degree of complementarity with imported coal, although this complementarity will weaken in the near future with the trend of changing to substitution.

The Impact of Tax Incentives on the Financial Performance of Wind Power Generation in China: Short-Term and Long-Term Effects

This study investigates the impact of tax incentives on the financial performance of wind power companies in China, particularly in the context of the global shift towards renewable energy. Wind power has become a key component of China’s clean energy strategy, especially since the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”, which has fostered industry growth through financial subsidies and tax policies. Despite these efforts, issues such as subsidy misuse have prompted reforms, linking financial support to performance. Using data from 76 listed Chinese wind power companies between 2013 and 2023, this research employs a multiple linear regression model to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of corporate income tax and value-added tax (VAT) incentives on financial performance. Results show that tax incentives significantly enhance long-term financial performance, as indicated by Tobin’s Q, but their impact on short-term measures like return on assets (ROA) is more limited. Firms appear to utilize these incentives primarily for innovation and expansion, contributing to sustained growth rather than immediate gains. The findings suggest that while tax incentives are essential for fostering long-term growth in capital-intensive industries like wind power, they do not significantly enhance short-term financial health. Therefore, policymakers should consider complementing tax incentives with additional mechanisms, such as direct subsidies or low-interest loans, to improve short-term financial stability and operational support. The work substantiates that tax incentives are effective in promoting long-term financial performance but have limited short-term benefits. Future policy frameworks should adopt a more integrated approach, using a combination of tools to support both immediate financial stability and sustainable long-term growth.

Policy, Innovation, and Total Factor Productivity of the Chinese Wind Power Industry: Does Dynamic Capability Matter?

Due to the environmental and economic advantages, wind power has been highly valued by the Chinese government in the energy transformation process. The Chinese government has promulgated a series of wind power policies, but their impacts on innovation and subsequent total factor productivity (TFP) are still not clear. Meanwhile, the role of dynamic capability seems to have been ignored. This study systematically evaluates the impact of policy on the innovation and subsequent TFP of the Chinese wind power industry. Then, we distinguish between integration capability and reconfiguration capability and elucidate their moderating effects on the relationship between policy and innovation. The empirical results indicate that policy and TFP of the Chinese wind power industry are positively correlated. Innovation plays a partial mediating role in the above relationship. Besides, both integration capability and reconfiguration capability significantly enhance the positive impact of policy on innovation.

An evolutionary analysis on the effect of tax incentives on R & D diffusion of wind power industry in complex network

The innovation performance of Chinese wind power enterprises has not been effectively improved, which may be caused by the behavior of enterprises using the information asymmetry between government and enterprises to camouflage R & D and obtain policies incentives. Therefore, this paper attempts to construct an evolutionary game model of tax incentives in complex network, introduces technology spillover and reputation cost, and discusses the diffusion of R & D in Chinese wind power industry. The results show that: (1) Reducing technology spillover not only contributes to the R & D diffusion, but also reduces the peak in the proportion of enterprises with camouflaging R & D. (2) Increasing reputation cost of violations can accelerate enterprises to reach the equilibrium and reduce the time that the proportion of the behavior with camouflaging R & D decreases. (3) The increase in incentives of lower tax rate for high-tech enterprises will create “lowland effect” for high-tech enterprises. And the increase in incentives of extra deduction for R & D expenses will increase the R & D diffusion of non-high-tech enterprises, while also suppressing the peak of the proportion in non-high-tech enterprises with camouflaging R & D.

Government intervention and technological innovation in the wind power industry in China: The role of industrial environmental turbulence

Wind power is accelerating the transformation of China’s energy market from a primary to a renewable energy-dominated market. The Chinese government has engaged in many supportive and regulatory interventions to guide and stimulate wind power enterprises to simultaneously improve existing technologies and develop new solutions. However, the effectiveness of policies and the potential interactions among them have not been empirically assessed. Firms in emerging economies typically survive and develop in turbulent environments. How such an environment affects the effectiveness of government intervention remains a black box. This study aimed to investigate the impact of wind power policies and their mix on exploitative and exploratory innovations in China, along with the moderating role of environmental turbulence. Using data on listed companies in the Chinese wind power industry from 2006 to 2020 and two-way fixed effects regressions, this study assesses and compares the impacts of different policy categories and their mix on exploitative and exploratory innovations. We also distinguish between market and technological turbulence, and clarify the moderating effect of environmental turbulence. In addition, this study ensures the robustness of the empirical results by altering the dependent variables and eliminating the interference of endogeneity using the IV-2SLS method. The results indicate that supportive and regulatory policies and their mix facilitate exploitative and exploratory innovations. Market turbulence enhances the relationship between policies and their mix and exploitative innovation, whereas technological turbulence enhances the relationship between policies and their mix and exploratory innovation. This is one of the first studies to evaluate the impacts of policies and their mix on the exploitative and exploratory innovations of renewable energy sectors in emerging economies, advancing the understanding of innovation growth in emerging economies and enriching research on renewable energy policies. Additionally, this study links environmental turbulence to government intervention, and thus contributes to the identification of policy effectiveness boundaries.

Policy and innovation of the wind power industry in China: do female executives matter?

PurposeFor survival and prosperity, enterprises must pursue exploitative and exploratory innovations simultaneously. To accelerate technological breakthroughs in the wind power industry, the Chinese Government has promulgated several support programs from the demand and supply sides. This study assesses the impact of different categories of innovation policies on exploitative and exploratory innovation. As women also play an increasingly important role in corporate governance, the authors also elucidate the moderating role of female executives in these relationships.Design/methodology/approachBased on micro-data of 119 listed Chinese wind power firms during 2006–2020, this study provides a theoretical model and tests the hypotheses.FindingsBoth demand-side and supply-side innovation policies significantly facilitate exploitative and exploratory innovations of in the Chinese wind power industry. Furthermore, female executives enhance the effects of these policies on exploitative innovation but negatively moderate their effects on exploratory innovation.Originality/valueInnovation is generally considered homogeneous. This is one of the first studies to evaluate the impact of different categories of innovation policies on exploitative and exploratory innovations. In addition, although the increasingly important role of women in corporate governance is acknowledged, whether and how female executives affect the effectiveness of innovation policies has not been fully explored. This study advances the understanding of the potential impact of female executives on innovation policy effectiveness.

Impacts of wind power policies on the total factor productivity of the Chinese wind power industry

Wind power has been treated as a strategic choice to decarbonize the Chinese electricity market, so the Chinese government has introduced various policies to improve the wind power industry's total factor productivity (TFP). However, the impacts of policies and their mixes on TFP are still unclear. In addition, the Chinese wind power industry is supervised and regulated by several agencies, so assessing and comparing the effectiveness of policies from different agencies is also an urgent task. This study evaluates the impacts of different categories of policies and their mixes on the TFP of the Chinese wind power industry based on micro-data from the listed Chinese wind power enterprises from 2006 to 2020. The heterogeneity in policy effectiveness is probed with respect to the policy-issuing agencies. The empirical results indicate that economic, regulatory, and soft policies and their mixes significantly facilitate the TFP. Further analysis suggests that the policies of the National People's Congress and the State Council have no significant effect, while the policies of the State Council's departments can significantly improve the TFP of the wind power industry in China.

Policy mix or policy mess? Impacts of policies on the productive efficiency of the Chinese wind power industry

Grand societal challenges call for a sustainability transition away from a fossil-based society toward a low-carbon society. Wind power is highly valued in China, owing to its strong environmental benefits and abundant reserves. Although accelerating the development of wind power industry is near the top of the agenda of the Chinese government, the impact of policies and their mixes on the productive efficiency of the wind power industry is still unclear. In this study, the productive efficiency of the Chinese wind power industry is systematically evaluated using microdata of 119 listed enterprises from 2006 to 2019. The effects of wind power policies and their mixes on the productive efficiency are then elucidated. The empirical results imply that the overall productive efficiency of the Chinese wind power industry is relatively high but that it fluctuated greatly between 2006 and 2019. Moreover, the effects of Chinese wind power policies and their mixes on productive efficiency are ambiguous. Both economic policy (EP) and regulatory policy (RP) hinder productive efficiency; only soft policy (SP) has a significant positive effect. Furthermore, the policy mixes of EP and RP, EP and SP, and RP and SP have no significant impact, but the policy mix of EP, RP, and SP significantly inhibits the productive efficiency of the Chinese wind power industry, indicating conflictive effects and confusion in the policy mix.

Policies and exploitative and exploratory innovations of the wind power industry in China: The role of technological path dependence

Exploitative innovation emphasizes the refinement of technologies. For example, the super long and super flexible blade is an improvement on the traditional blade. Exploratory innovation emphasizes the breakthrough of technological trajectories. The floating offshore wind turbine represents a revolutionary innovation. For survival and prosperity, wind power enterprises need to excel simultaneously at both exploitative and exploratory innovations. The Chinese government has issued a series of wind power innovation policies, but their impact on exploitative and exploratory innovations is not clear. Moreover, technological path dependence describes the connection between intertemporal innovations. The prevalence of QWERTY keyboard is the best case. While the effect of technological path dependence on the impact of innovation policies is also unknown. Using micro-data from listed Chinese wind power enterprises from 2006 to 2019, this study clarifies the effects of innovation policies on exploitative and exploratory innovations, and assesses the moderating effect of technological path dependence. Our results indicate that the effects of wind power innovation policies are significant, yet ambiguous. All categories of policies improve exploitative innovation, but negatively impact exploratory innovation. Besides, technological path dependence positively moderates the positive relationship between policy and exploitative innovation and the negative relationship between policy and exploratory innovation.

Implications of the development and evolution of global wind power industry for China—An empirical analysis is based on public policy

This paper probes into the different stages of development of public policies of the global wind power industry since the beginning of the 21st century and the impetus of such development. The Danish government introduced two energy plans which made it become a world leader in wind power; the German government launched public policies to buy-back and support the development of offshore wind power to boost the growth of its wind power industry, the booming of the wind power industry in the United States cannot be separated from its tax model and policy promotion. After a rapid development from 2000 to 2021, China’s wind power industry is stepping into the “parity era”. Combining with its national conditions, it has deployed “carbon neutral” and “carbon peaking” and other strategies. However, through analysis, this paper finds that wind energy in China has not been utilized well. For example, in 2020, China’s annual wind curtailment rate reached 16.61 billion kWh, which is equivalent to the total energy production of some countries a year. In the northwestern region of China, where this phenomenon is the most serious, the total curtailment reaches 1.95 billion kWh. Shannxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang are four provinces in the region. The amount of curtailment of these places account for 30,100 kW, 32,100 kW, 20,100 kW, 35,100 kW respectively, accounting for 10.4%, 8,6%, 3.8%, and 11.2% respectively in northwest China. At the same time, in the first half of 2021, the bidding volume of wind power in the national open market reached 32.92 GW, which equals the annual bidding volume in 2020, leading to a surge in the volume and a severe shortfall in energy subsidies. Currently, the subsidies have decreased from 0.25 yuan per kWh at the peak to 0.06 yuan per kWh, making wind power companies cash-strapped. In summary, the current Chinese wind power industry has problems such as the serious “wind curtailment” phenomenon and imperfect policies related to subsidies for renewable energy. This paper aims to provide suggestions for the development of China’s wind power industry from three aspects, namely learning policies and innovating public policies, learning technologies and suggestions to policies, under the complex context at home, and abroad and the development process of leading countries in the wind power industry.

Economic policy, regulatory policy, or soft policy: Which category of policy can effectively improve the green innovation of Chinese wind power industry?

Although wind power is clean in general, its potential adverse impacts on ecology and environment still cannot be ignored. To improve green innovation of wind power industry, the Chinese government has issued a series of policies. With the microdata from listed Chinese wind power enterprises from 2006 to 2019, this study examines the impacts of policies on green innovation. The results indicate that economic policy, regulatory policy, and soft policy significantly improve the green innovation. Unfortunately, the incentive effect only scratches the surface. The further analysis suggests that all categories of policies contribute to the low‐quality green innovation only.

Beyond bean counting: Is the policy effective for the innovation efficiency of wind power industry in China?

Abstract The technological innovation of wind power is crucial to energy security and energy structure transformation. The Chinese government has been committed to improving the innovation of the wind power industry for decades. Although academic researchers and wind power policymakers have been widely concerned about the absolute score of innovation output, concentrating on innovation output in isolation is ultimately insufficient. This article goes beyond bean counting and evaluates the innovation of the Chinese wind power industry from the perspective of relative efficiency, and then assesses the efforts of the government to improve innovation efficiency (IE). The study uses the data of 105 wind power listed enterprises in China over the period 2008–2019. According to the recommendation made by the existing papers, IE is defined as the capability to generate innovation outputs per unit of R&D investment. Regression analysis is applied to test the policy effect. During 2008–2019, the average value of IE of Chinese wind power industry is 0.196. The IE of wind power enterprises in eastern China (0.265) is higher than that in central and western China (0.169). Besides, the regression results indicate that all categories of wind power innovation policies contribute to the IE of wind power industry in China. Furthermore, the innovation policies issued by the departments of the State Council significantly improve the IE of wind power industry, but the innovation policies from the National People’s Congress and the State Council have no significant impacts on IE.

Evaluation of China’s policy for wind power development from the new structural economics perspective

The Chinese energy transition, as a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, involves the dynamic growth of wind power’s importance in a national energy mix. The development of the wind power industry in this country is intertwined with the implemented policies that translated to the significant increase in energy generation from this power source and the growth of trade volumes of wind power products. This research aims to review and analyse the China's policy that impacted wind power development in 2000-2019. The author aims to evaluate the efficiency of implemented policies and strategies from the perspective of the new structural economics assumptions and the revealed comparative advantage of the Chinese wind energy products. In addition to the review of scientific literature and policy documents, as well as analysis of the relevant trade and energy indicators, the method applied in this research is a calculation of the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index. The results provide pieces of evidence that despite the substantial development of the Chinese wind power industry on a national scale, this country still has not revealed a comparative advantage globally. However, the results also suggest that the Chinese wind power industry is on the right track to achieve export specialisation soon. Furthermore, the China's policy for wind power development matches the new structural economics assumptions. The presented insight into studied industry blazes the trail for other countries, which consider following the Chinese development path by shaping the growth of leading-edge industries and the energy transition process throughout various state interventions.

Energy System Sustainability

This issue presents some of the latest findings within energy planning research and form a special issue from the 2021 5th Annual Conference of the Portuguese Association of Energy Economics as well as for the 2020 Sustainable Development of Energy, Waste and Environmental Systems conference series. The work presented probes into the effects of the European emissions’ trading system on innovation, and the development of the Chinese wind power industry. Notable is also an analysis of people at Portuguese universities revealing lesser knowledge of renewable energy technologies but a more positive attitude towards this among women – and vice versa among men. EnergyPLAN-based energy systems analyses with cases from Iran and Serbia are presented, and different indicators for energy systems analyses are deliberated in a Mexican context. Marine energy developments in Columbia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Denmark are discussed with a focus on siting and barriers. Also, barriers against solar energy exploitation in Indonesia are explored as are barriers against energy savings in Nigeria.

Forecasting Chinese Wind Power Installed Capacity Using a Novel Grey Model with Parameters Combination Optimization

The intermittent and uncertain characteristics of wind generation have brought new challenges for the hosting capacity and the integration of large-scale wind power into the power system. Consequently, reasonable forecasting wind power installed capacity (WPIC) is the most effective and applicable solution to meet this challenge. However, the single parameter optimization of the conventional grey model has some limitations in improving its modeling ability. To this end, a novel grey prediction model with parameters combination optimization is proposed in this paper. Firstly, considering the modeling mechanism and process, the order of accumulation generation of the grey prediction model is optimized by Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Algorithm. Secondly, as different orders of accumulation generation correspond to different parameter matrixes, the background value coefficient of the grey prediction model is optimized based on the optimal accumulation order. Finally, the novel model of combinational optimization is employed to simulate and forecast Chinese WPIC, and the comprehensive error of the novel model is only 1.34%, which is superior to the other three grey prediction models (2.82%, 1.68%, and 2.60%, respectively). The forecast shows that China’s WPIC will keep growing in the next five years, and some reasonable suggestions are put forward from the standpoint of the practitioners and governments.

Toward Renewable Energy in China: Revisiting Driving Factors of Chinese Wind Power Generation Development and Spatial Distribution

As the biggest renewable energy installation and generation country globally, it is important to deeply understand China’s wind power production determinants and draw implications for energy policy. This paper analyzes local electricity deployment, electricity consumption, investment in wind power, and price of wind power electricity on-grid apart from traditional GDP and CO2 factors in the panel data regression model, and some interesting results are found. The investment of installation and the price of wind power electricity on-grid have negative impacts on wind power generation, while local electricity consumption and inter-provincial power transmission capacity significantly impact wind power generation positively. GDP and CO2 emission per capita have negative and positive impacts on wind power production, respectively. As for different wind power zones, the most influencing factors are local electricity consumption. Hence, this paper concludes that local absorbing capacity is still an important limiting factor to Chinese renewable energy development. At last, some policies are suggested to enhance the local absorbing capacity of renewable energy.

How Policies Guide and Promoted Wind Power to Market Transactions in China during the 2010s

Chinese wind power policies have productively promoted the development of wind power and also promoted the process of wind power participation in electricity market transactions. However, with policy emphasis on investment and neglect of utilization, there have been some difficulties in the development of Chinese wind power. To highlight the guiding role of policy and improve the wind power policy system, an analysis of Chinese wind power policies is conducted in this paper. First, aiming at the main components of wind power chain, including wind power construction, grid connection, transmission, and sales, a comprehensive and systematic frame of Chinese wind power policy system is proposed from the three aspects of development planning, administrative management and market transactions. Second, the indicator system of Chinese wind power development effectiveness is extracted, including installed capacity, power generation, power utilization hours, carbon emission reduction, investment, on-grid power price, wind curtailment rate, etc., and the effectiveness of policy implementation is verified. Third, new policy recommendations are proposed from parts of transmission, consumption, and market, for the development of Chinese wind power industry in the 14th Five-Year Plan period and the goal to reach the crest value of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. In this paper, advice to supplement and improve the Chinese wind power policy system is provided, which may it promote better development of Chinese wind power in the following decade from the policy point of view.