Lead:

High-quality development has made the industry's focus more and more on technological innovation. To make technological innovation ahead of development and construction, the industry urgently needs to solve forward-looking, common, basic problems and "stuck neck" problems. The National Wind Power Engineering Technology Research Center (hereinafter referred to as the "center") brings together industry forces, uses scientific mechanisms to inspire enterprises, breeds talents with a tolerant attitude, and assumes the historical mission of the new era. Recently, the director of the center, Zhai Endi, made the above statement when accepting a reporter from this journal.

Director of National Wind Power Engineering Technology Research Center Zhai Endi

The peak of construction is a training ground and also a touchstone

Q:Affected by the policy of parity, my country's wind power has entered a peak period of construction in the past two years. During this period, how large-scale project development will promote the development of the industry?

A: my country's onshore wind power development has gone through more than 20 years, and offshore wind power has only been commercialized for more than 5 years, but it has become the world's largest wind power market. Entering the "14th Five-Year Plan", industrial development has entered a brand new stage:

One is high-quality development. Wind power will shift from scale-driven to innovation-driven. We can regard the project construction peak as a training ground and a touchstone. In this peak period of construction, developers, as the "chain length" of the industrial chain, invested a lot of manpower, financial resources, and material resources to check technology. For example, the Three Gorges Group and East China Survey, Design and Research Institute have all built their own installation vessels. These are the model innovations brought about by the construction peak, which inject impetus into the industry and promote the industry to enter the stage of benign development.

The second is to further integrate resources. With the advent of the bidding era, in the past, the county-level unit was used as a unit, and now the wind power investment layout is made with the province as the unit. Fujian and Guangdong are in the forefront of project planning, promotion and development speed; Shandong also attaches great importance to offshore wind power planning and the development of new energy. The provinces have also strengthened overall planning among different energy forms, and the integration of resources has been significantly enhanced.

Q:Which industry problems are exposed during the peak period of wind power construction?

A: Entering the peak of construction, some problems have become more prominent, mainly manifested in 3 levels:

The first is the policy formulation level. Policy-making must be forward-looking as well as a smooth transition. Leading companies, industry associations, and industry experts should actively play the role of "think tanks" and provide the government with market analysis and advice in a timely manner.

The second is the ability level. Our construction speed and the current development speed are beyond the scope of our own capabilities, especially the offshore engineering capabilities have not been able to keep up. The "stuck neck" technology has made certain products still rely on external sources.

The third is the level of talent training. my country's onshore wind power has led the world in scale, but domestic universities have just begun to set up wind power majors. The rapid development of the industry and the rapid iteration of technology have enabled the industry to undertake the basic education of wind power and spend a lot of energy on the training of professional talents.

Of course, recognizing these problems can also prompt the industry to turn pressure into motivation and move forward.

Technological innovation should catch up with the speed of construction

Q:You are an expert in offshore wind power engineering technology, please tell us about the current engineering challenges faced by offshore wind power.

A: Everyone knows that my country's wind power is taking a path from technology introduction, digestion, and absorption to joint design and comprehensive independent innovation. At present, my country’s wind power is no longer a “recruit”, and most of the equipment has been made domestically. However, most of the requirements of core technical specifications such as GB and NB/T are still borrowed from Europe. Customized improvements. It needs to be particularly emphasized that the current experimental technology level of my country's wind power industry lags behind the construction speed. Strictly speaking, the technological development of the industry should precede development and construction. Therefore, at present, we need to focus on basic theoretical research, experimental foundation construction, localization of key parts and components, professional talent team training, and institution establishment construction.

The wind power experimental verification system covers four levels: components, subsystems, complete machines, and field networks. Companies should first build component-level and subsystem-level experimental capabilities. For example, for high-cost blades, it is necessary to strengthen the investment in materials and airfoil experiments; at the same time, the main bearing also faces design, simulation, process, and test problems, especially the main bearing test equipment requires a one-time investment of hundreds of millions of yuan. A single bearing enterprise is still unable to invest; in terms of the whole machine, the PLC chip, operating system, IGBT and other control components of the large megawatt unit need to be upgraded. The whole machine should also be tested in strict accordance with the specifications to eliminate as many defects as possible and improve Adaptability.

Q:In 2022, offshore wind power will also enter the era of parity. What technical problems still need to be solved in the future?

A: The first point of concern is that after the dual carbon goal is proposed, the development of large megawatt units has become the only way. In 2022, the construction of offshore wind power will enter a period of flattening, and it is necessary to improve the industry's ability to solve problems and strengthen the research and development of large-megawatt generating units. We expect that by the second half of 2023, 15MW+ wind turbines can be erected in my country's waters. It is expected that 2024 and 2025 will be a critical period for the rapid development of my country's offshore wind power, and offshore wind power will become the main track for the development of renewable energy.

The second focus is on flexible DC technology. In the future, the development of offshore wind power projects in my country will inevitably go to the deep sea. Under cost pressure, the use of AC booster stations is no longer an option, and it has become an inevitable trend to promote flexible DC and large-scale power transmission.

The third is floating offshore wind power technology. With the large-scale planning and development of offshore resources, from the perspective of resource stock, the development needs of the deep sea gradually surfaced, and the wind energy resources of the deep sea are better and more stable. Therefore, the development of floating wind power technology that adapts to deeper waters has attracted much attention, and it will become a major key technology for breaking through offshore wind power.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned series of goals, a large number of technological innovations need to be carried out. At present, both the national level and the leading companies in the industry have increased their investment in original technology research. The National Energy Administration also issued the “Administrative Measures for the National Energy R&D and Innovation Platform” in 2020, focusing on various fields such as national energy security, sustainable energy development, and the need for technological innovation in major energy projects.

The National Wind Power Engineering Technology Research Center must take on the big responsibility

Q:In 2005, the National Wind Power Engineering Technology Research Center was formally established relying on Goldwind Technology. As the director of the center, in your opinion, what important role does the center play in the process of wind power technology innovation?

A: The center is mainly engaged in high-tech research and engineering promotion of wind power generation.

With the rapid development of wind power in my country, the center has played an active role in international cooperation or in promoting the localization of equipment, promoting technological progress in the field of wind power, and expanding the development space of wind power. Since its establishment, the center has completed a number of major national scientific research technologies, such as the completion of the Ministry of Science and Technology "Internet + Manufacturing Application Demonstration" project, the successful development of a large data service platform for wind energy resources, and the completion of the National 863 Program "Super Large Direct Drive Permanent Magnets" Research on the design technology of offshore wind turbines", related technical achievements have been successfully applied to large-megawatt offshore wind turbines such as 6MW and 8MW; the independently developed GW175-8.0MW offshore unit has completely independent intellectual property rights and is a domestic large-megawatt direct drive The unit adopts E-TOP design for the first time, using flexible power control strategy, integrated platform design, integrated assembly and delivery, single blade hoisting and other technologies.

During the peak period of construction, large-scale development drives us to "running fast", but we must follow the basic logic. In terms of technology development, the center strictly follows the integrated product development IPD and technology maturity TRL1~9 process, and has passed the rigorous review by the expert team to ensure the performance and reliability of product development.

Q:In the future, what areas will the center focus on to meet the challenges currently faced by the industry?

A: As a national technology platform, the center will shoulder the mission of the new era, continue to promote the development of wind power technology to the high-precision field, and is committed to solving the "stuck neck" problem in the application of wind power technology, and strive to promote forward-looking , Commonality, basic research.

Forward-looking research should be oriented towards the establishment of a new power system with new energy as the mainstay. Under the dual-carbon goal, non-power industries, including the traditional "three barrels of oil" are all involved, and competition is intensified. But on the other hand, the participation of relevant entities also brings greater development space for wind power, such as solving grid inertia response, primary frequency modulation and other technical problems on the Internet, and driving the healthy development of the entire industry. Common technologies need to coordinate all technical forces to overcome them. For example, wake model and wind power prediction are inseparable from the study of wind energy resources. At present, the cumulative installed capacity of offshore wind turbines in my country exceeds 2,000, and a large amount of data has been accumulated in actual operation. If problems in the design are found through the actual operation of these units, we can continue to improve and optimize them, which will improve the follow-up technology. Lay the foundation for improvements and upgrades.

At present, the center continues to play an important role in the industry. It organizes industry experts and companies to promote the development of the entire supply chain through technological progress and mechanism innovation, and promote the industry to build a technological ecosystem. This is a very positive model. In the future, we can also cooperate with local governments to set up funds to encourage leading companies and related industries to participate in local investment, jointly apply for related topics, and promote local economic development and technological progress in the industry.

Q: What plans does the center have in terms of professional talent training?

A: Gathering talents, making good use of talents, and cultivating talents is one of the main tasks faced by the center in the new historical period.

Wind power is a multidisciplinary coupled application major. From aerodynamics to electromechanics, materials, structures, to hydrodynamics, geotechnical engineering, etc., gathering talents in various fields has become the key to the high-quality development of the industry. In order to solve the industry's high-precision technical problems, 0 to 1 technological innovation problems, talents have already faced a situation of global competition. With a more tolerant attitude, the center will gather top-notch scientists of different styles and fields to sort out scientific research tasks to various companies to complete together. At the same time, more attention is paid to the training of professional talents. It is believed that entering the "15th Five-Year Plan" stage, the center can gather more outstanding talents, cultivate more professional reserve forces, build a strong team of talents, and jointly contribute to the realization of the dual-carbon goal.

Source: "Wind Energy" Magazine, Author: Wang Fang