Its German rival Nordex announced December 3 it would lay off 130 staff in its Chinese factory to offset losses caused by fierce domestic competition.
After five years of rapid development encouraged by local governments, the domestic wind power industry faces a serious overcapacity in wind turbine manufacturing, which will lead inevitably to a slowdown and industry integration in the next few years, Lin Boqiang, director of the Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times Monday, adding that the same phenomenon can be seen in the solar power industry.
Data from the National Energy Administration and the Chinese Wind Energy Association in March showed the volume of newly equipped wind turbines in 2011 reached 17.6 million kilowatts, 6.85 percent lower than 18.9 million kilowatts in 2010.
The overcapacity also was due to insufficient demand, given that domestic wind and solar power generators tend to reduce equipment purchases when facing difficulties with grid integration, Cai Wenbin, a power analyst from Datong Securities, told the Global Times.
China's power grids are mainly owned by two firms, State Grid Corp and China Southern Power Grid, which sometimes limit the grid integration of wind electricity out of safety concerns or due to high costs in technology, said Cai.
Cumquat market in S China's Guangxi